Roving Rube Picture of the Day
Each day (that he gets around to it) the Rube posts a new picture, together with some explanatory notes. Clicking on the file will download a larger version.
10/22/01
"From the tiny acorn springs the mighty oak"
"Commodore" Vanderbilt chose the acorn as the symbol of his family dynasty, symbolizing his rise as from steamboat captain plying the NY harbor to the head of the richest family in the world. The acorn motif can be found throughout his son William's Grand Central Station. I would like to tell you that William also put these ones on Grand Central Post Office next door, but so far the evidence is only circumstantial.
In his "Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt", Arthur T. Vanderbilt II notes that despite the fabulous wealth of his forefathers, by the time he and 119 other descendants gathered for a reunion in 1973 at Vanderbilt University, there was not a millionaire in the bunch. He cites a counter-proverb:
"Generations pass while some tree stands, and old families last not three oaks."