Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Belmont, Alva, 1853-1933

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role Collector
dates 1854-1933
city Loiret
other citiesMobile, AL; Sands Point, NY; Newport, RI; New York, NY; Paris, France; East Meadow, NY;
countryFrance
sex F
historical notes Alva Eskrine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont was an art collector, architecture authority, member of the American Institute of Architecture, and was active in the Women's Suffrage Movement in the U.S.

Belmont collected Italian primitives, portraits by Clouet, 15th and 16th century Flemish Tapestries, and was an avid patron of William Morris Hunt.
She built three Vanderbilt homes: a French Renaissance style chateau at 660 Fifth Avenue in New York City, A Queen Anne style retreat on Long Island “Idle hour”, and Marble House in Newport, RI.

When married to Olivier Belmont she built Beacon Towers at Sands Point, L.I., the neoclassical mansion “Brookholt” in Hempstead, Long Island, a neoclassical three-story New York City townhouse at 477 Madison Avenue, and restored “Belcourt” in Newport, RI.

She owned and restored three residences in France; 9 Rue du General Lambert, Paris; the Villa Isoletta at Eze-sur-Mer; and Château d’Augerville-la-Rivière, in the Department of Loiret (40 miles south of Paris).

Alva founded the Metropolitan Opera Association at the Metropolitan Opera House, she gave $100,000.00 to the Nassau Hospital in Mineola, L.I., and organized the National Woman’s party convention in 1915 where she presented the organization with a home in Washington, DC.

Alva’s first marriage was to William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849 – 1920) from 1875-1895, they had three children; Consuelo Vanderbilt ( 1877-1964), William Kissam Vanderbilt II ( 1878-1944), and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970).

In 1896 she married Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858-1908).

decades
of activity
1880-1890
1890-1900
1900-1910
1910-1920
1920-1930
updated 02/07/2020 18:21:34
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Archives/Repository Collection Title Collection Details
Vanderbilt Museum
Reference & Archives collection
Vanderbilt Museum of Suffolk County (Centerport, N.Y.) Scrapbooks, logbooks and photo albums, ca. 1885-1952, ca. 1900-ca. 1940 (bulk) see details...
Duke University Library
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Matilda Young Papers, 1932-1933. see details...
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
Papers of C. E. S. Wood, 1829-1980 (bulk 1870-1940). see details...
Vanderbilt University
Special Collections and University Archives
ALVA SMITH VANDERBILT BELMONT, 1965 - 1998 see details...
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Harvard University
Margaret Floey Papers, 1847-1968 (inclusive) 1909-1929 (bulk) see details...
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Harvard University
Laidlaw, H. B. (Harriet Burton), b. 1874. Papers, 1851-1958 see details...
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Harvard University
Milholland, Inez, 1886-1916. Papers, 1906-1916 see details...
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Harvard University
Page, Mary H. (Mary Hutcheson), 1860-1940 see details...

see also:
Belmont, Oliver H. P. (Oliver Hazard Perry), 1858-1908
Vanderbilt, William K. (William Kissam), 1878-1944