CG Learn Article 6 Brides, Correspondents, and Typewriters

CAMELLIA GRACE LEARN ARTICLE #6

Brides, Correspondents, and Typewriters

Dollar Princesses

Cartoon illustration of Dollar Princesses' influence on European men of wealth. September 28, 1913. El Paso Herald (El Paso, TX), Image 33. Library of Congress

In the late 19^th century, the wealthy aristocracy of Britain was seeing its fortunes dwindling. These families held vast swaths of land and large estate homes. In the past, they could rely on sustaining their wealth through agriculture, but with the rise in overseas grain production, relying less on Britain product, their business suffered. At the same time, across the Atlantic, wealthy industrialists were quickly seeing their fortunes soar in the opposite direction as the age of railroads, steel production, and oil refining reached their peak. It was the generationally wealthy fighting to maintain their fortunes on one shore and the “nouveau riche” trying to prove their place in the high ranks of the “old money” set on the other.

Jeanette (‘Jennie’) Churchill (née Jerome), Lady Randolph Churchill

Henry Van der Weyde, photograph, 1880s. National Portrait Gallery

In 1873, at a sailing regatta on the Isle of Wight, Jeanette (Jennie) Jerome was introduced to Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of the 7^th Duke of Marlborough. Jennie was the daughter of Leonard Jerome, a wealthy American financier, with a $250,000 dowry worth over $9 million today. Three days after Jennie and John met, they were engaged. The Churchills were initially displeased with the swift engagement, but during settlement talks with the Jeromes, it quickly became clear that Jennie’s dowry would be for the Churchills’ coffers. The couple was married in April of 1874 and were the parents of two boys, Winston and John. Winston would go on to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This was the start of a trend of wealthy American heiresses marrying into titled European families, who became known as “dollar princesses.”

Between the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, there were over 400 marriages between wealthy American women and European aristocracy. Most of the marriages were to British men, and it is estimated that these women brought close to a billion pounds into the country’s economy. But the trade wasn’t all one-sided. Marrying a man with a title such as Lord or even Duke unequivocally increased a woman’s social standing—and that of her entire family—back in the United States.

Consuelo Vanderbilt

Photograph. C 1890-1910. Library of Congress

One other “dollar princess” of note was Consuelo Vanderbilt. Consuleo’s mother, Alva, was determined to marry her off to an aristocrat of high rank. Alva arranged a meeting between her daughter and Charles-Spencer Curchill, the 9^th Duke of Marlborough. Though Consuelo had no interest in the Duke and was also secretly engaged to someone back home, she was bullied into the marriage by her overbearing mother, and the two were wed in November of 1895. Despite the Duke admitting he only married Consuelo for her money and the marriage not being a happy one, the Duchess was adored by the Dukedom’s tenants and enjoyed a comfortable spotlight in British high society.

The decline of the “dollar princess era” came with World War I, changing social values, and increased taxation on large estates in Europe. Aristocratic fortunes continued to shrink, and the rigid class systems that once made titles so desirable began to weaken. At the same time, American society became more confident in its own elite, reducing the need to seek validation through European nobility.

Today, dollar princesses remain a symbol of the Gilded Age—an era of extreme wealth, social ambition, and striking contrasts between old money and new. Their stories reveal how marriage could function not just as a personal relationship, but as a strategic alliance shaped by class, economics, and international prestige.

19^th Century War Correspondents

The profession of war correspondent emerged in the 19th century as newspapers expanded rapidly across the United States and technologies like the telegraph made rapid reporting possible. These journalists traveled with armies, sketched battle scenes, and dispatched reports that brought home vivid descriptions of combat to civilians thousands of miles away. The stories they told shaped public opinion, expanded press influence, and foreshadowed modern wartime journalism.

It was during the Civil War that war correspondents emerged as essential for reporting and as a professional career with salaries and expense accounts. There were roughly 400 reporters who followed the Union troops and about 100 who covered the Confederacy. These reporters, in order to be successful, not only had to be competent at reporting and writing, but also at mastering logistics. They were reliant on telegraphs, railroads, and horses to advance their work, and in times of war, in areas of battle, had to learn to maneuver disruptions in these areas. Not only that, but a common strategy of war is to take out the enemy’s modes of communication, which meant roads, telegraph lines, and railroad tracks. Consequently, reporters also had to learn to be resourceful, even going so far as to learn to repair telegraph lines themselves.

Lieut. Col. Theo. Roosevelt (left) and Richard Harding Davis (right)

Photograph ca. 1898. New York, N.Y.: Strohmeyer & Wyman, publishers July 8. Library of Congress

After the Civil War, war correspondence became increasingly professionalized. Improvements in transportation, steamships, and undersea telegraph cables allowed faster reporting from distant theaters. One of the most notable figures of the late 19th century was Richard Harding Davis. Often credited as the first modern American war correspondent, Davis covered the Spanish-American War of 1898, bringing vivid, personality-driven dispatches to American readers and influencing public sentiment about U.S. intervention abroad. He is most famously known for being friends with Theodore Roosevelt and reporting on Colonel Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” cavalry regiment. Davis’s lively dispatches depicted Roosevelt as a war hero, paving the way for his roles as Mayor of New York and then President of the United States.

But Harding’s work did not come without conflict and criticism. Many accused him and his publisher, William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal, of sensationalizing their reporting of the war, referring to it as yellow journalism. Yellow journalism is characterized by exaggerated headlines, unsubstantiated claims, and scandalous headlines, usually with a partisan agenda. This style of reporting helped shape enthusiasm for war in 1898, showing that the press could be a powerful and agenda-driven force in national affairs.

The Typewriter

The 19^th century brought many advancements and innovations. One such innovation was the typewriter. The typewriter, a machine that uses keys to strike paper that has been applied with ink via a ribbon, was invented to replace the laborious task of handwriting, since typing could be done much faster.

As with many inventions, it was the work of many that contributed to the final successful designs. The first documentation we have of a typewriter-type machine is for a patent obtained by Henry Mill, an English inventor, in 1714. The patent describes the machine as one that transcribes handwriting onto paper, though there are no drawings of the machine or proof that the machine was built. The first typewriter we have working proof of, through preserved letters, is a machine built by an Italian mechanic named Giuseppe Pellegrino Turri in the early 1800s. Turri, who also invented carbon paper, built the machine for his friend, the Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, who slowly lost her vision until she was completely blind. Turri wanted a way for the Countess to “write” and communicate to her friends, and crafted a machine where keys with raised characters were attached to arms that, when pressed, would hit paper with carbon paper underneath.

Hansen Writing Ball, 1878

Photograph, taken 2016. Technology Collections of Dresden. WikiCommons

Sholes & Glidden Desk Typewriter, 1874-1876

Photograph of item downloaded 1/13/26. From the Collections of The Henry Ford

The first commercial typewriter wasn’t available until decades later, when a Danish inventor, Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen, invented the Hansen Writing Ball. This version had a very unusual design with 52 keys on a half globe, with the paper below placed in a cylinder shape. The writing ball was sold widely throughout Europe through the 1870s, but was quickly overtaken by a newer version, which came out of the US called the Sholes and Glidden Typewriter, which became the industry standard for typewriters and introduced the four-row QWERTY keyboard layout, which is still used today.

By the late 19th century, typewriters had become common in offices, businesses, and government agencies. They transformed clerical work and created new job opportunities, especially for women, who increasingly entered the workforce as typists and secretaries. This shift played an important role in changing gender roles and expanding women’s economic independence. Typewriters even changed the way those who wrote for a living, such as reporters and authors, produced their work, increasing productivity. In 1892, George Canfield Blickensderfer invented the Blickensderfer typewriter, the first portable typewriter with a full keyboard, thus paving the way for typewriters to be used outside of just an office setting and even becoming more common in the home by the early and mid-20^th century.

As is the common case with technology, there are always more advancements. The rise of personal computers and word processing software in the 1980s quickly made typewriters obsolete for most users. Although typewriters are no longer widely used, they remain important cultural and historical symbols. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain famously used typewriters, and many people still appreciate the tactile experience and distinctive sound of typing on one. Today, typewriters are collected by enthusiasts, used in art and film, and occasionally chosen by writers seeking a distraction-free tool. Overall, the typewriter played a crucial role in shaping modern communication.

Other Words, People and Phrases:

T.R.: initials for Theodore Roosevelt

Henry Rossiter Worthington: American mechanical engineer and industrialist; innovator of steam and water pump technology

Papes: slang for paper, or newspaper

Salted pork and hardtack: long-lasting rations for sailors and soldiers from the 17^th-20^th centuries comprised of hard, dry crackers and fatty meat preserved with salt.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250609-how-dollar-princesses-brought-us-flair-to-the-uk

https://historyfacts.com/us-history/article/gilded-age-dollar-princesses/

https://www.history.com/articles/american-heiress-marry-british-aristocrat

https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/dollar-princesses/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Randolph_Churchill#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consuelo_Vanderbilt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_princess

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_correspondent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_correspondents

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/the-pen-the-sword-a-brief-history-of-war-correspondents/