Stories of the Gilded Age so often focus on the world of adults and more often on the highest layer of elite society. Of course, there was much, much more to the story of America's social and economic growth at the end of the 19tth century that involved those of the middle and lower classes - and also included children.

Listener favorite Esther Crain, author and creator of Ephemeral New York, joins The Gilded Gentleman for a look at the world of children during the Gilded Age. As she shared in the episode "Invisible Magicians: Domestic Servants in Gilded Age New York" with writings by actual servants, Esther has uncovered documents written in children's own voices that capture their world and reality.

From a 12 year old boy in Gilded Age Harlem to a teenage girl on what would become Manhattan's Upper East Side, we can finally meet children who are both seen and heard.

Elizabeth Wharton Drexel was a quintessential ingenue of the Gilded Age. Eventual heiress to the Drexel banking fortune, elegant and sophisticated, Elizabeth married but was widowed unexpectedly. But she married again, this time to Harry Symes Lehr, a bon vivant and social playboy.

But she soon learned her life was to become a reality far from what she ever expected.

This episode tells the story of Elizabeth Drexel and Harry Lehr along with the world in which they lived. In 1935, after Harry's death, Elizabeth wrote what we would perhaps today call a "tell all" memoir -- King Lehr and the Gilded Age -- recounting the challenges of her marriage but also the frivolity and froth of the Gilded Age from her own observances as an up-close participant.

Her observances are some of the most acute and incisive we have on the period.

Visit the Gilded Gentleman website for more information and episodes

This episode was edted by Kieran Gannon

Just the name "Tiffany" evokes the glamour and elegance of the Gilded Age. But there is much more to the story than just the eponymous retailer who continues to sell fine jewelry and decorative objects today.

Carl is joined by Lindsy R. Parrott, the Executive Director of The Neustadt Collection, one of the country's most important collections of Tiffany glass and archival materials, to discuss the two Tiffanys - Charles Lewis Tiffany who began the original retail silver and jewelry and his son Louis Comfort Tiffany who created revolutionary designs in stained glass.