Electric Lady Liberty

When Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt (1845–1934) appeared in the Electric Light Dress, commissioned from the House of Worth for her family’s legendary 1883 fancy-dress ball, she not only displayed her wealth but also signaled her modernity. While members of more established families came in historical costumes that confirmed their status by drawing comparisons with European aristocracy, Vanderbilt, whose family often had been derided as “new money,” used her costume to align herself with the innovative and exciting new technology of electric light. This paper explores the cultural context of Vanderbilt’s dress in relation to publicity campaigns for electric light and the Statue of Liberty in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In donning such a dress at this high-profile event, Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt intimated that she, and by extension her family, was the future of New York society.