Early Life and Marriage
She was born Abigail "Abby" Greene Aldrich in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of the influential Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, and the former Abby Pearce Truman Chapman, a distant descendant of the fourth signer of the Mayflower Compact.
Her sister, Lucy Aldrich, who was nearly completely deaf (at the time thought because of a childhood bout of scarlet fever, now believed to be the result of waardenburg syndrome, a genetic anomaly found in several generations of the Aldrich family), would be one of her closest friends throughout their lives, and is believed to have fostered Abby's interest in American folk art.
Her early education came at the hands of Quaker governesses. In 1891, aged 18, she enrolled at the Miss Abbott's School for Young Ladies in Providence, Rhode Island. While there she studied English composition and literature, French, German, art history and ancient history, gymnastics, and dancing. She graduated in 1893 and made her debut in November 1893. On June 30, 1894, she sailed for Liverpool, beginning a lifetime of extensive European and later Asian travel. The aesthetic education she gained from abroad, initially fostered by her father, helped to inform her future discernment as an art collector. This initial four-month sojourn included the countries of England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France.
In the fall of 1894 she met her future husband, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the sole son and scion of the wealthy oil industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, at a friend's house in Providence. They went through a protracted engagement, during which they were invited for a trip to Cuba in 1900, on President William McKinley's yacht. They finally married on October 9, 1901, in the major society wedding of the Gilded Age, in front of around a thousand of the elite personages of the time, at her father's summer home in Warwick Neck, Kent County, Rhode Island.
They settled in 13 West 54th Street from 1901 until 1913, when the construction of the nine-story mansion at 10 West 54th Street, the largest in New York city at the time, was completed by her husband. They resided at Number 10 until 1938, when they moved to a 40-room triplex apartment at 740 Park Avenue. They became the parents of six children, including the famed five "Rockefeller Brothers" - and established the renowned six-generation-strong business/philanthropic/banking/real estate dynasty:
- Abby Rockefeller Mauzé (November 9, 1903 – May 27, 1976)
- John Davison Rockefeller III (March 21, 1906 – July 10, 1978)
- Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979)
- Laurance Spelman Rockefeller (May 26, 1910 – July 11, 2004)
- Winthrop Rockefeller (May 1, 1912 – February 22, 1973)
- David Rockefeller (born June 15, 1915)
Read more about this topic: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or marriage:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“The shift from the perception of the child as innocent to the perception of the child as competent has greatly increased the demands on contemporary children for maturity, for participating in competitive sports, for early academic achievement, and for protecting themselves against adults who might do them harm. While children might be able to cope with any one of those demands taken singly, taken together they often exceed children’s adaptive capacity.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“—No, no thou hast not felt the lapse of hours!
For what wears out the life of mortal men?
‘Tis that from change to change their being rolls;
‘Tis that repeated shocks, again, again,
Exhaust the energy of strongest souls
And numb the elastic powers.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“In all perception of the truth there is a divine ecstasy, an inexpressible delirium of joy, as when a youth embraces his betrothed virgin. The ultimate delights of a true marriage are one with this.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)