The Astor family name has always been one of the most prominent in America—even in the year of 2025. Currently, HBO is fictionalizing the life of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (aka “Mrs. Astor”) and her daughter, Carrie, in The Gilded Age. This June, the family’s namesake hotel, the Waldorf Astoria, had a splashy re-opening after an eight-year closure in New York City. “The Waldorf has always been a reflection of New York,” historian David Freeland told the New York Times. “I’d like to think that its reopening symbolizes the return of a great public space within the life of the city.”)
With a fortune that dates back to the late 1790s, the Astors first made their money in fur trading, and later, in New York City real estate. Their patriarch, John Jacob Astor, was the first multi-millionaire in this country’s history.
Over the centuries, the family both made history and reflected it: the aforementioned Caroline Astor was the leader of the strict, exclusionary New York society of her age, while son John Jacob Astor IV developed grand buildings in the boom-town that was New York City. In 1912, he died in the sinking of the Titanic. Fast forward to the 1990s, when Brooke Astor was known as both a great philanthropist… and social butterfly. “Parties were part of her job; she’d champion her causes while she worked the room. She told me she went out every night ‘to meet interesting people,’” Bill Cunningham said of the late socialite.
Throughout it all, they were captured by the photographers of Vogue, whether it was wearing the latest fashions by Charles James or posing in front of their grand estates. Below, see a visual history of the Astors in our magazine—the perfect fodder before turning on The Gilded Age.
