Season 3/Episode 1, "Who Is in Charge Here?"

By Genna Duplisea, Preservation Society Archivist

The opening of “The Gilded Age” Season 3 shows its characters questioning what makes a good life.

Ada Brook Forte, now the holder of the purse-strings in the van Rhijn home, honors her late husband by dedicating his fortune to social causes, including a temperance meeting seen in the opening episode.

American interest in the temperance movement rose beginning in the 1870s, seeking to remedy society’s ills by limiting or eliminating the consumption of alcohol; by 1890 the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement was the largest organization of women in the world. Temperance arguments emphasized the possibilities of a more peaceful and prosperous society without alcohol, but also sometimes fell into anti-immigrant rhetoric, blaming industrialization and immigration for the growth of and licentiousness in American cities.

The van Rhijn servants, gathered around the kitchen table, show their distrust of Larry Russell, son of a railroad tycoon. Does he really want to help Jack Treacher, the footman becoming an inventor, as a business partner or is this venture a lark for him?

Adelaide, a maid in the Russell home, criticizes Jack for trying to rise above his station. Just as the Russells’ new money threatens the standing of old-money socialites in this period, the rise of the working and middle classes threatens the security and control of the wealthy over American society.

Gladys Russell knows what life she considers good – marrying Billy Carlton – but her mother Bertha declares her desire to make her a powerful figure through a match with the Duke of Buckingham. As a duchess, Gladys could set trends, shape politics and be the envy of every woman in the world, and Bertha is unwavering in her view that these possibilities are what make a good life.

This tension echoes that between Alva Vanderbilt (later Belmont) and her daughter Consuelo. Although Consuelo wished to marry Winthrop Rutherfurd, Alva pushed her into a marriage with the Duke of Marlborough in a carefully orchestrated proposal in the Gothic Room of Marble House. The coming episodes of “The Gilded Age” will show us whether Gladys can pursue her own fate or if she is tied to her mother’s wishes. 

While some characters grapple with pursuing what they want versus what society allows, Peggy faces the threat of a society that is wholly uninterested in her well-being. Agnes van Rhijn calls for a doctor after Peggy takes ill during the unseasonable snowstorm, and is shocked when the doctor refuses to treat Peggy because of her race. New York municipal hospitals remained segregated into the 20th century. Pseudoscience arguing racial inferiority and spreading false beliefs about people of color underpinned American life and had long-lasting effects on the health of Americans of color. What pursuit of the good life means for Peggy as a Black woman is very different from the journeys of the people around her at Fifth Avenue and 61st Street.

This episode includes scenes filmed in The Elms kitchen and surrounding areas (the kitchen of the Russells’ New York mansion) and Mrs. Berwind’s bedroom in The Elms (Gladys’ room).