Alice Vanderbilt in her ‘electric light’ dress.
Madison Square at night, Harper’s Weekly, 14 Jan. 1882, 25
The defining event of the gilded age was the Vanderbilt fancy dress ball, a glitzy gathering for New York’s high society held on 26 March 1883. Guests spent small fortunes on their costumes, but the most spectacular was the so-called ‘electric light’ dress worn by Alice Vanderbilt.
Electric lighting, then a cutting edge technology, was an apt source of inspiration for a modern and flashy costume. In 1880 Charles Brush had illuminated Broadway between Union and Madison Squares with arc lamps suspended from towering masts. Oscar Wilde, who first visited New York in January 1882, thought these lights made the city at night as beautiful as Venice, and he delighted in how the shadows of foliage cast onto the sidewalk gave ‘the impression that one is walking upon a beautiful mosaic floor of most cunning device’.Marland, R. (2026) Oscar Wilde’s First Tragedy: The Composition, Production, and Reception of Vera; or, The Nihilists, Jena: Little Eye, 473
A famous photograph of Alice Vanderbilt in her dress shows her holding up a torch in the manner of the Statue of Liberty. Frédéric Auguste Bertholdi’s colossus would not be erected for another three years, but thanks to the temporary display of the arm and torch in Madison Square Park the citizens of New York were already looking forward to the arrival of what would become the defining symbol of their city. In the photograph, rays emanate from Alice’s torch. These were clearly added after the fact: photo editing was as common in the 1880s as it is today, with photographers and their assistants often retouching wet collodion negatives with graphite to conceal facial blemishes, colourising black-and-white prints with paint and ink, and even adding snowflakes, smoke, or soap bubbles to give images a sense of drama.
But did Alice’s torch actually light up? Was her electric dress truly electric?
Carl Raymond of The Gilded Gentleman podcast recently reposted an episode from 2024 featuring a conversation with Elizabeth Randolph, the Collections Manager for Costumes and Textiles at the Museum of the City of New York, where Alice’s dress now resides. Carl and Elizabeth discussed whether the dress was powered by electric light. Elizabeth was unconvinced by theories that a battery pack was hidden in the dress’s bodice (there’s no room for it), but was willing to entertain the possibility that the torch was lit by electric light.
‘I cannot say for certain that she did not have a light on the torch,’ she said, ‘and if anyone out there has a primary source that has more information, please share it with me, because I have looked and I haven’t had much luck yet.’
This sounded like an interesting challenge, and one that I was willing to take up given my fascination with New York in 1883, having recently written a book about the staging of Wilde’s first play, Vera; or, The Nihilists, in that city and year.
Like Elizabeth, though, I was not able to find conclusive evidence. What I did learn from perusing contemporary newspapers is that there were plans for quadrilles to be danced at the Vanderbilt ball, during which each lady would carry a small electric battery.‘At Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt’s fancy ball the star quadrille will be illustrated by the electric light if possible, and each lady will carry a small electric battery.’ The Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), 15 Mar. 1883, 4. The quadrilles were abandoned because the electric lights failed to work.‘The quadrilles could not be given because of the failure of the electric lights to work.’ St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO), 29 Mar. 1883, 2.
A poster for Excelsior (1883) showing the cast carrying and wearing electric lights. Image: LOC. Click to enlarge.
The illuminated dance also reminded me of reviews of a spectacular ballet staged in New York at Niblo’s Garden on 21 August 1883 (one day after Wilde’s Vera). Excelsior told the story of light (a metaphor for civilisation) triumphing over darkness and ignorance. It celebrated modern wonders of science, technology, and engineering, such as electric light, the telegraph, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the eagerly awaited Statue of Liberty. The show’s producers, the Kiralfy Brothers, had even persuaded the inventor Thomas Edison to supervise their electrical lighting effects. In Excelsior’s climactic scene, a host of dancers emerged onto the stage carrying staffs or flagpoles, each with an electric light at its tip. And we can see in a surviving poster for the show that the lead dancers held lights aloft like Lady Liberty, and wore lights on their heads.‘In the closing scene [of Excelsior] the incandescent electric light is used effectively, the glowing bulbs being hung in a network over the stage, and carried on the ends of staffs in the ballet.’ The Sun (New York, NY), 22 Aug. 1883, 3; ‘Mr. Edison has armed each of the ballet girls in Karalfy’s new play of “Excelsior” with a little battery, and at a signal each one will flash out upon the stage with an electric light upon her forehead.’ Buffalo Express (Buffalo, NY), 23 Aug. 1883, 2.
Although it would be nice to have more solid evidence of Alice’s plans for her fancy dress costume, I think it’s clear that the technology to equip individuals with small electric lights was in place by 1883 and was being used in precisely the way that the photo of Alice suggests. If reports that the quadrille dancers at the ball were going to carry electric lights are true, the likelihood is that Alice also would have wanted her torch to be lit with electricity. Because such effects were being used in the theatre at the time, I think it is safe to assume that Alice and her guests would have expected her torch to be illuminated and would have been disappointed if it were not. Perhaps Alice did wear a battery pack (outside her bodice?) but, like those of her dancers, it failed to function. Never mind: light rays were added to her photograph and a myth was born.