page_title: Alva Belmont
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Alva Belmont / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Residence of William K. and Alva Vanderbilt at 660 5th Avenue, New York, New York.
context_page_description: Alva Belmont, née Alva Erskine Smith — known as Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896 — was a prominent multi-millionaire American socialite and a major figure in the American women's suffrage movement. Known for having a haughty manner that antagonized some people, she was also noted for her energy, intelligence, strong opinions, and willingness to challenge convention.
  In 1909, she founded the Political Equality League to get votes for suffrage-supporting New York State politicians, wrote articles for newspapers, and joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She later formed her own Political Equality League to seek broad support for suffrage in neighborhoods throughout New York City, and, as its president, led its division of New York City's 1912 Women's Votes Parade. In 1916, she was one of the founders of the National Woman's Party and organized the first picketing ever to take place before the White House, in January 1917. She was elected president of the National Woman's Party, an office she held until her death.
context_section_description: At a party for one of William Henry Vanderbilt's daughters, Smith's best friend, Consuelo Yznaga introduced her to William Kissam Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.  On April 20, 1875, William and Alva were married at Calvary Church in New York City.
  The couple had three children:
  Consuelo Vanderbilt (March 2, 1877 – December 6, 1964)
  William Kissam Vanderbilt II (October 26, 1878 – January 8, 1944)
  Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (July 6, 1884 – July 4, 1970)
  Alva maneuvered Consuelo into marrying Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, on November 6, 1895.  The marriage was annulled much later, at the Duke's request and Consuelo's assent, in May 1921.  The annulment was fully supported by Alva, who testified that she had forced Consuelo into the marriage.  By this time Consuelo and her mother enjoyed a closer, easier relationship. Consuelo married Jacques Balsan, a French aeronautics pioneer. William Kissam II became president of the New York Central Railroad Company on his father's death in 1920. Harold Stirling graduated from Harvard Law School in 1910, then joined his father at the New York Central Railroad Company. He remained the only active representative of the Vanderbilt family in the New York Central Railroad after his brother's death, serving as a director and member of the executive committee until 1954.
caption: The Vanderbilts' Petit Chateau at 660 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
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