The Gilded Age boomed in the United States between the American Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, and was a transformative chapter in American history that left a lasting impression on the country in more ways than one.
It is a period that came out of the country's rapid industrialization and was spearheaded by the business magnates that capitalized off of it, who made more money than anyone ever previously had.
In addition to being characterized by its stratospheric economic growth, the Gilded Age produced powerful dynasties who shaped American economic, cultural, and political life for generations.
The likes of social arbiter Caroline Schermerhorn Astor laid out stringent rules for her famed 400 Index that Gilded Age society lived and breathed by; John Jacob Astor transformed the U.S. economy and even bailed it out during a financial panic; and we have the Vanderbilts to thank for institutions such as The Metropolitan Opera, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The New York Public Library, among others.
Meet the most prominent billionaire Gilded Age power players below.