Elegance and Aspiration: Money, Taste and Jewelry in America’s Gilded Age

This well-illustrated lecture explores the five status gemstones of the Gilded Age; diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. In a country where social status was based on wealth, not bloodlines, such extravagances gave America’s Gilded Age wealthy the appearance of aristocracy. This talk by Ulysses Grant Dietz, Chief Curator Emeritus of the Newark Museum of Art, explains how expensive gemstones helped set the wealthy apart at a time when late 19th-century mass production was making jewelry affordable to people of more modest means.

ULYSSES GRANT DIETZ was Curator of Decorative Arts and Chief Curator at The Newark Museum for 37 years. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Yale in 1977, and his master of arts in American Material Culture from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in 1980.

The curator of 114 exhibitions during his tenure, Mr. Dietz is particularly proud of his work on The Newark Museum’s 1885 Ballantine House, which was re-interpreted and restored as the centerpiece of the decorative arts department in 1994. In 1997, Mr. Dietz was the project director for “The Glitter & The Gold: Fashioning America’s Jewelry,” the first-ever exhibition and book on Newark’s once-vast jewelry industry. In 2003, Mr. Dietz organized and co-authored “Gems from the East and West,” an exhibition and catalogue of Doris Duke’s remarkable jewelry collection. Additionally, Mr. Dietz has published numerous articles on decorative arts, as well as books on the Museum’s American art pottery and 19th century furniture, and jewelry collections. His last book for the Museum was “Jewelry from Pearls to Platinum to Plastic” and was published in 2017.

Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York. He studied French at Yale University and was trained to be a museum curator in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. Ulysses is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant. His late mother, Julia, was the President’s last living great-grandchild; youngest daughter of Ulysses S. Grant III, and granddaughter of the president’s eldest son, Frederick.

Featured Jewelry Above:

Koch Frères, Germany Bowknot brooch, 1905-10 | Platinum, diamonds, velvet, Overall: H 2 1/4 x W 2 3/4 in. (H 5.7 x W 7 cm) | Gift of Millicent Fenwick, 1989 | Collection of The Newark Museum of Art 89.96 (Photo by Richard Goodbody)

Brooch and pendant, 1915-20 Louis Comfort Tiffany and Meta Overbeck for Tiffany & Co., New York, New York | Gold, opals, enamel, 2 ¾ in. x 1 ¾ in. (H 7 x W 4.4 cm) | Purchase 2005 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund| Collection of The Newark Museum of Art 2005.7.2a, b (Photo by Richard Goodbody)

Marcus & Co. New York The Rehan Jewel, ca. 1900 | Enamel, gold, (brooch): H 4 x W 3 in. (H 10.2 x W 7.6 cm) | Purchase 2013 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund | Collection of The Newark Museum of Art 2013.2 (Photo BY Richard Goodbody)

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