Cornelius Vanderbilt

<p><span class="deck">Her past was shady but her conscience was excellent, and all in all she played a big part in the emancipation of women</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> —and America’s greatest fortune up to that time, some $100,000,000. The legal battle that followed, full of tarts and torts and turnabouts, might have been plotted by Dickens</span> </p>

<p>Steamboat competition was about more than speed.</p>

<p>What happened to all the great 19th-century fortunes?</p>

<p><span class="deck">And how history shows it’s actually good for us</span></p>