Something Old, Something New: Nellie Grant

Something Old, Something New: Eight First Daughters’ Fashionable White House Weddings highlights the glamorous weddings of eight women who took their vows at the White House over two centuries and how their bridal fashion reflects both the taste of each era and their own personal styles. This exhibit was curated by Jillian Staricka, the 2023 Digital Exhibits Intern and MA student in Costume Studies at New York University.

Nellie Grant

Married to Algernon Sartoris on May 21, 1874

Ellen “Nellie” Wrenshall Grant married English singer Algernon Sartoris, son of a politician, on the morning of May 21, 1874, to the great delight of the nation. As the only daughter of President Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Dent Grant, Americans clamored for information and stories about her grand wedding—and the press delivered. The Daily Graphic, an illustrated New York City newspaper, published the events of the wedding day, the attire of the attendees, items from her trousseau, the bridal party, and Nellie’s wedding ensemble in exquisite detail. In comparison to the prior weddings of first daughters, Nellie’s wedding was splashed across the front pages of newspapers around the country. Her wedding dress was made of the finest satin and Brussels point lace and trimmed with all the flounces, ruffles, and embroidery, supposedly made with “no limit on price.” Her wedding reflected her charming young spirit and thus, “here and abroad her example has been one worthy of imitation by the daughters of the nation.”

Gallery

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The Wedding at the White House

Date: June 6, 1874

Creator: Henry Alexander Ogden

Medium: Hand colored wooden engraving

Henry Ogden captured Nellie Grant’s marriage to Algernon Sartoris in this wood engraving for the June 6, 1874 issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Every entrance to the grounds of the Executive Mansion was guarded and passage only possible with an invitation from the couple. Although the grounds were generally more public in the nineteenth century, the Boston Daily Globe noted that security had to be employed for the event or the “Executive Mansion would have been literally besieged."

White House Historical Association

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Nellie Grant Wedding Special, The Daily Graphic

Date: May 23, 1874

Medium: Newspaper

This engraving depicts the Grant-Sartoris wedding party: the mother of the bride, Julia Grant, the best man and Nellie’s older brother, Frederick Grant, and Nellie’s eight bridesmaids, who were all from affluent families. The bridesmaids wore lustrous white silk gowns with tulle overlaying them in a pleated ruffle fashion and a pouf in the back of the skirts, as bustles and trim at the center back of skirts were in vogue. Four of the ladies were decorated with blue flowers and the other four with rose-pink flowers. In the English tradition, Algernon did not have any groomsmen besides his best man, Frederick.

NewsBank/Readex

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Nellie Grant Wedding Special, The Daily Graphic

Date: May 23, 1874

Medium: Newspaper

As their only daughter, President Grant and First Lady Julia Grant indulged in wedding gifts and a trousseau for Nellie to take to England–a “wardrobe befitting a princess.” The trousseau created for Nellie was reportedly stocked with around one hundred dresses of the handsomest fabrics and fineries so that she would not have to rely on her husband to purchase new dresses so soon after the marriage. Evening dresses, street suits, morning wear, outdoor wear, and lingerie of all sorts fabulously embellished filled the trousseau that supposedly rivaled Queen Elizabeth I’s collection.

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Nellie Grant Wedding Special, The Daily Graphic

Date: May 23, 1874

Medium: Newspaper

Eighteen-year-old Nellie wore a wedding gown of the finest white satin and point lace. The satin around the bottom of the skirt was box-pleated and had satin bows in between the pleats. Tulle ruching and rare point lace flounces adorned both the skirt and the neckline and orange blossoms were arranged across the layers of expensive fabrics. When ordering the handmade point lace from Brussels for Nellie’s gown, President Grant requested that it be the “most superb the manufactury could produce.” The bride wore a locket necklace and earrings made of pearls and diamonds, a tulle veil, and long white gloves to complete the look.

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Nellie Grant Wedding Special, The Daily Graphic

Date: May 23, 1874

Medium: Newspaper

Two of the scenes published in The Daily Graphic depicted the bridal party train departing to New York City after the wedding and the interior of the special Pullman palace car. The Pullman car, which was originally built for the 1873 World’s Fair in Vienna, was specially refurbished to take the fashionable bridal party to New York after the wedding and was reported to have cost approximately $22,000. Nellie wore the traveling dress from her wedding trousseau on the journey to the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City: an olive brown skirt, a light brown long cutaway coat with embroidery, a dark straw hat, and matching brown gloves.

NewsBank/Readex

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