It seems the great Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt patriarch of the great Vanderbilt fortune had a secret.

Well, depending on the circle that you traveled in, perhaps it wasn't really such a secret at all.

The Commodore was a spiritualist. He believed that he could communicate with beings on the other side.

His departed son for one, his mother for another, but also that he could communicate with beings on the other side, his departed son for one,

his mother for another, but also that he could use spirits to influence and predict his business deals.

But it seems that he was not alone.

There were many people, famous and not, who wanted to communicate with the beyond, whether just to heal an aching heart

or maybe predict a very unstable future. Today's show with guest New York historian and

preservationist Anthony Belloff will take a look at the beginnings and the rise of spiritualism

through the 19th century and we'll look closely into this story of how the Commodore

became deeply influenced by one self-proclaimed spiritualist

who also set her sights on becoming the first female president. Welcome to the Gilded Gentleman History Podcast, a show that takes a look under the velvet

ropes of the Gilded Age, Francis Bellapuck, and late Victorian and Edwardian England.

I'm Carl Raymond, your host. Now, when I think of

communicating with the beyond, it always reminds me that when I was a very young, gilded gentleman,

I used to go over to my neighbor friend's house and we'd climb up to their dusty, dark attic

in their big old Victorian house, and we would take out their Ouija board and sit close together on the old wooden floor and in great solemnity ask questions and see what it's spelled out.

Now, I don't remember what we got, but I was looking for disembodied voices most of the time.

But the only disembodied voice I actually ever got was my mother out in the yard calling me back home to supper.

But there really is, and there really was, way more than that to spiritualism.

And my special guest is here to shed some light on all of this.

And today is a real treat.

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