Salon.com, "The Gilded Age" Reflects Upon Our Divisions Then, and Now: "American Experience" examines another point in history when the wealthy few trampled upon the will of the many. Feb. 6, 2018.

It is somewhat fitting that “The Gilded Age,” the latest installment of the PBS series “American Experience,” kicks off with the story of a hotel orgy. Of wealth.

The setting is an extravagant gala that took place at Waldorf Hotel, which attracted everybody who was anybody in New York City. Photographs of attendees are styled to resemble portraiture of European aristocracy, with elaborately dressed and coiffed men and women engaging in what appears to be an insane game of one-upmanship.

Other photo portraits of an earlier ball hosted by the Vanderbilts in 1883 are more ridiculous yet.
In one, a woman wears a luxuriously feathered hat. Another features a lady of means sporting an entire taxidermized bird on her head. Both may have been outdone by one person who has made a jaunty chapeau of what appears to be half of a feline. Yes. A cat.

More, https://www.salon.com/2018/02/06/the-gilded-age-reflects-upon-our-divisions-then-and-now/

TIME, "How American Inequality in the Gilded Age Compares to Today," Feb. 5, 2018.
Includes *VIDEO/Trailer, Intro. Chapter 1.

http://time.com/5122375/american-inequality-gilded-age/