Cornelius Vanderbilt

 Isa Pedersen

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

12 April 2022

Cornelius Vanderbilt

    Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in 1794, and as a child would make money with his father by working on a ferry that went in between Staten Island and Manhattan. Vanderbilt built up his job and worked as the captain of a steamship after working the ferries with his father. He brought his career to the next level, and became the largest steamship operator in America. From this he built up his net worth, when he died he was worth around 100 million dollars. After building up his business in steamships, he invested in railroads, which built up the rest of his fortune. In the 1840s Cornelius built the Vanderbilts' a giant mansion in New York using his money that he got from the railroads and steamships. While investing in railroads, he encountered James Frisk who he fought for the Erie Railroad, which would have made him lots of money. Unlike other people at the time who had that amount of money, Vanderbilt was not very generous. He only made one donation in his life to Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He gave this donation to build and endow the university that was names after him. While Cornelius Vanderbilt did not vuild elaberate houses or anything like that, there are some mansions that were built in the Vanderbilts name. Much later, after he had died, his grandchildren and great grandchildren built more houses with the family's money. There are now houses in Rhode Island and North Carolina. One of these houses which was build in North Carolina, named the Biltmore Estate, is now the biggest privately owned house in the United states. The house has 250 rooms, surpassing every other mega-mansion in the states. Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877 with 100 million dollars plus everything he owned. He left all the fortune and most of his possessions to his son, William Vanderbilt.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marcel Mauss - blogger

  Claire Thacker  Mr. Roddy  IHSS  Date  Marcel Mauss Marcel Mauss was a sociologist and anthropologist. He was born May 10, 1972, and died February 10, 1950. One of his accomplishments is an original study of the relation between forms of exchange and social structure. Mauss’s views on the method/theory of ethnology are thought to have shaped the thoughts of many famous social scientists. His career started as a professor of primitive religion in 1902 at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. He also taught at College de France and established the ethnology institute of the University of Paris. Essai Sur le don , also known as The Gift,  is thought to be his most influential work. The Gift is an essay Mauss wrote about how human relationships are formed through the exchange of objects between groups. The Gift also talked about what part of giving a gift does it mean that you have to give something back. The answer according to Mauss in his writin...
Read more

The Tipping Point Sociology Blog

Wyatt Quillin  Mr. Roddy IHSS 27 September 2021 The Tipping Point     The tipping point is the point where something becomes immensely popular and spreads across a society. This something can be anything from a pair of shoes to a dance move to a hairstyle, and there are a couple of variables that are necessary to the success of the something. According to Malcolm Gladwell, the writer of the book The Tipping Point , the three components that determine whether something will reach its tipping point are the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. The law of the few relies on the select people who are able to use their special social traits to help spread information and influence. Again according to Gladwell, the three types of people are the salesmen, mavens, and connectors. Salesmen are naturally very convincing and can easily persuade people. Connectors are very popular and connected to lots of different influential people. Connectors can easily s...
Read more

Sociology Reading Blog (The Culture of Fear)

 Ethan Zweig Mr. Roddy IHSS September 27, 2021 "The Culture of Fear"     "The Culture of Fear" was written in 1999 by Barry Glassner, who was a sociology professor at USC. The book explains who Americans are so engrossed with "fear of wrong things". Glassner examines and exposes the people who manipulate Americans perceptions profit from the often baseless anxieties they cultivate and encourage. Three out of four Americans say they feel more more fearful than they did a decade ago. Culture of fear is the concept that people incite fear in the general public to achieve political or workplace goals through emotional bias. Barry Glassner found out that no amount of debunking can wipeout fear. 
Read more