American author Mark Twain used the term the Gilded Age to characterize New York City from the 1870s to the 1890s, a time when the rich and prosperous flaunted their wealth in clothing, jewels, and enormous mansions built along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Operas, symphony halls, balls, and lavish dinners were places to display one’s wealth and taste, often inspired by European trends and fashions. The ostentatious wealth of the Gilded Age contrasted with the poverty experienced by the working class of the city, particularly the immigrants who lived in crowded, unsanitary tenements in Lower Manhattan and the outer boroughs.

Inside the high society of the Gilded Age, long-established families with wealth looked down on the nouveau riche, those who rose to prominence with the boom of industry and expansion that followed the Civil War. Families like the Astors, who had known wealth for generations, snubbed couples like the Vanderbilts, whose fortunes were newer. Among the most elite were those who could trace their descent to the first Dutch families to settle Manhattan; they called themselves the Knickerbockers, after a type of short trousers that the Dutch colonists wore.

Another term used to describe the strict boundaries of New York City’s upper class was the Four Hundred.