This story is exclusive to subscribers.

How Chattanooga fits into America’s Gilded Age

Staff File Photo / Minnie d'Erlanger Churchill, the great-granddaughter of Erlanger hospital's first benefactor, is pictured with a bust of the Baroness at Erlanger hospital. Churchill, who was married to Winston Churchill's grandson, has visited Chattanooga several times. Staff File Photo / Minnie d'Erlanger Churchill, the great-granddaughter of Erlanger hospital's first benefactor, is pictured with a bust of the Baroness at Erlanger hospital. Churchill, who was married to Winston Churchill's grandson, has visited Chattanooga several times.

By Lisa Denton April 30, 2024 3 min read

A new cookbook about America’s Gilded Age is not only a collection of recipes but a lesson in history.

“The Gilded Age Cookbook,” from writer Becky Libourel Diamond, includes historic menus and updated recipes, as well as entertaining stories of the celebrities of the era — the Vanderbilts, Astors, Goelets and Rockefellers.

Chattanoogans could add the Erlangers to that list, says Chattanooga-Hamilton County historian Linda Moss Mines.

The Gilded Age encompassed the tumultuous years between the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century and was marked by unprecedented growth in industry and technology, including the modernization of railroads.