Mrs. Astor

The Gilded Age

Mrs. Astor - Philanthropist

History 20

Itzel Mejia

The Gilded Age was a time period where the rich lived lavishly and carefree. Meanwhile many Americans and immigrants were poor and living in cramped and harsh conditions. Mrs. Brooke Russell Astor was an accomplished and giving person. Mrs. Astor a was a socialite, philanthropist and writer. She brought about many great changes in New York.  After the death of her third husband Vincent Astor in 1959 was when Brooke began to run the Astor Foundation.  Mrs. Astor was probably one of the last or is the last bridge to the Gilded Age.

As the head of the Vincent Astor Foundation Mrs. Astor promoted many organizations in New York City. She donated about 195 million dollars to New York City alone. Overall she was just a grand figure in New York. Mrs. Astor had stated that she donated a lot to New York since most of the Astor fortune was made in New York she felt the money should be spent in New York. So she began to give grants to the city’s museums, libraries, elderly homes, boys and girls clubs and other programs.  She really wanted to help out the community she herself would visit and become a member of foundations in where she would donate such as the New York Public Library, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She had stated she wanted to donate but know what the money was going for.  

Mrs. Astor had a huge devotion to New York City; she would donate to parks, museums, cultural institutions, and the New Work Public Library. She had donated $20 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of her donations was for the Chinese Courtyard in Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mrs. Astor also made a huge contribution to education in New York City. She had donated $20 million to the New York Public Library. She wanted to help disadvantaged New Yorkers so she had donated many grants for education. And even today her donations are still helping, such as a grant to Hunter College of $300,000 to train second grade teachers in East Harlem to teach children who don’t speak English at home. Or Teaching Matters,$120,000 for a new system to help kindergarten through third grade teachers give high quality reading instruction in poor communities. Out of the $43 Million Brooke Astor Funds in The New York Community Trust, 9.2 million was for early childhood education.

Her main focus was to help better the lives of many New Yorkers. Brooke Astor gained the respect of many community activists, politicians, and other philanthropists due to her humility and will to help others. The Vincent Astor Foundation is still around today and still helping across all New York State. 

           

Works Cited

1. Estrin, James. Brooke Astor's donations helped develop a block on Astor Row on 130th Street in Harlem. Mrs.Astor on 130th Street in 1997. Digital image. The New York Times. Marilyn Berger, 13 Aug. 2007. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

2.Gallery 217-Chinese Coutyard in the Style of the Ming Dynasty

Modeled on a seventeenth-century courtyard in the Garden of the Master of Fishing Nets in

Suzhou Gift of the Astor Foundation in 1981.

3. Marilyn Berger.”Brooke Astor,105.Aristrocrat of the People, Dies” New York Times 14,August2007:print

4.Sauro, William.“Brooke Astor” New York Times.March 28,2012 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopic/people/a/brooke_astor/index.html

5.The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story Frances Kierman-W.W.Norton-2007