The Vanderbilt family tree, from the Commodore to Anderson Cooper

The Vanderbilt family tree begins with Jan Aertszoon, a farmer from De Bilt who reached New Netherland in 1650.⁶ Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on 27 May 1794, on Staten Island by the text of his Wikipedia article and in New York City by its summary box. Captains in the ferry trade first called him the Commodore in jest.⁷

In 1813 he married his first cousin Sophia Johnson, who bore thirteen children. Wikidata gives her birth as 1795 from one record and 1797 from another.^7,5 Shortly before his death on 4 January 1877 he gave $1 million to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He left about $105 million.⁷

Cornelius Vanderbilt II married Alice Claypoole Gwynne in 1867 and led the New York Central from 1885.⁹ Richard Morris Hunt designed The Breakers for them. The Preservation Society dates it to 1893 to 1895, the family article to 1892 to 1895.^1,6

His eldest son had died and Cornelius III was in effect disinherited, so in 1899 the will made Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt head of the branch. Alfred died on the Lusitania in 1915.¹⁶ His sister Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a sculptor, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1931.¹⁵ Reginald Vanderbilt married Gloria Morgan in 1923 and died in 1925.¹⁷ In 1934 Gertrude won custody of his daughter Gloria from her mother in court.¹⁵

William Kissam Vanderbilt married Alva Erskine Smith in 1875.¹⁰ In 1883 Alva opened their house at 660 Fifth Avenue with a costume ball for about 1,000 guests.¹¹ Marble House at Newport was a present for her 39th birthday.² She divorced him in 1895, married Oliver Belmont in 1896 and in 1916 co-founded the National Woman’s Party.¹¹

Their daughter Consuelo married the ninth Duke of Marlborough in 1895, a match her mother pressed. They divorced in 1921. Her article dates the annulment to 1926, her mother’s to 1921.^18,11 Her brother Harold Stirling Vanderbilt won the America’s Cup in 1930, 1934 and 1937.¹⁹

Frederick William Vanderbilt married Louise Anthony in 1878 and built a country palace at Hyde Park, now a National Historic Site of over 400 acres.^12,4 A niece was his chief heir. His article gives his estate as $79,845,478, the headline it cites $72,845,478.¹²

George Washington Vanderbilt II built Biltmore near Asheville between 1889 and 1895, to designs by Hunt with grounds by Frederick Law Olmsted. The article counts 250 rooms and 178,926 square feet, though it also writes four acres of floor space.¹⁴ George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in 1898, and Cornelia was born at Biltmore in 1900.¹³ Cornelia and her husband opened the house to the public in 1930, and it still belongs to George’s descendants.^14,3

Gloria Vanderbilt was born in New York in 1924 and died there in 2019. She married Pat DiCicco in 1941, Leopold Stokowski in 1945, Sidney Lumet in 1956 and Wyatt Cooper in 1963, and she launched her designer jeans in 1976.²¹ Wyatt Cooper, a writer, died in 1978.²²

Their sons were Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, born in 1965, who died in 1988, and Anderson Cooper, born in 1967. Anderson has hosted Anderson Cooper 360° at CNN since 2003, and in 2021 wrote a history of the family with Katherine Howe.^21,23 The Vanderbilt family tree records only these public facts for the three of them.