During New York City’s Gilded Age, wealth, power, and scandal tended to go hand-in-hand. But few contemporary New Yorkers could imagine the sensational 1890s drama surrounding the private life of lawyer and politician Robert Ray Hamilton, great-grandson of founding father Alexander Hamilton.
Robert Ray Hamilton, a scion of wealth and privilege, found himself mired in a tumultuous relationship with a beautiful and mysterious female con artist he met in a brothel. Add an abandoned baby, sham marriage, tawdry courtroom testimony, and a voracious press, and you have one of the most lurid, tabloid-ready scandals of the Gilded Age.
Author and New Yorker Bill Shaffer tells the story in his gripping and well-researched new book, The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Fathers Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism. Shaffer will be giving a Zoom presentation on the drama and its impact on the late 19th century city for Landmark West! on Tuesday, February 7 from 6-7 p.m.
The Zoom presentation is free for Ephemeral New York readers. Sign up here and use the promo code ENY, and your ticket is on the house thanks to the kind folks at Landmark West!
[Photo: Landmark West!]
Tags: Crimes of Gilded Age NYC, Gilded Age New York City Scandals, Robert Ray Hamilton Evangeline Steele, Robert Ray Hamilton Gilded Age, The Notorious Hamiltons Bill Shaffer
Ephemeral New York 
February 7, 2023 at 10:19 pm |
Beautiful might be stretching it, but interesting nonetheless!
February 7, 2023 at 11:32 pm |
Hi Charles, I’m so sorry about this; I’m only just seeing this now. I hope you were able to log in.