About this Event
In 2025 Kenwood House hosted the acclaimed exhibition entitled Heiress – Sargent’s American Portraits. This displayed a number of Singer Sargent’s portraits of beautiful, rich and often socially ambitious American women – paintings loaned from both UK and USA collections. John Cooper, a volunteer at Kenwood, became intrigued by the simple pencil sketch of the wealthiest of them all – Consuelo Vanderbilt.
Consuelo was one of over one hundred wealthy American girls who married into the British peerage between 1870 and World War 1, with many more marrying into the British upper classes. She was coerced by her indomitable mother into a loveless marriage to the Duke of Marlborough, and moved as a young woman to be Duchess in the family’s enormous and decaying ancestral home, Blenheim Palace. She found the pomp and ceremony of Victorian times to be an anathema to her, totally contrary to her upbringing and principles.
Some years earlier another American girl, Jennie Jerome, had married the duke’s uncle, Lord Randolph Churchill. Unlike Consuelo, Jennie had married for love. Jennie’s first child was Winston Churchill, born at Blenheim Palace, whom became Consuelo’s first cousin by marriage and her close friend.
Many other American heiresses also moved across ‘the pond’ in an exchange that was impolitely referred to as ‘cash for coronets’; these two women made significant contributions to British society.
Come and hear about the lives of these amazing individuals.
John Cooper has been a volunteer at Kenwood House since it reopened following refurbishment some 13 years ago.
Consuelo Vanderbilt
John Cooper
Event venue & nearby stays
Hornsey Moravian Church, Priory Road, London, United Kingdom
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