Talk:George Washington Vanderbilt II

Reference conflict
The unreferenced articles George Washington Vanderbilt III and George Washington Vanderbilt II have some conflicting references if you go look. These reference show "III" being applied to the one who died in 1914 not the one born in 1914. If there are any experts on the subject with solid references your help would be greatly appreciated in referencing these two articles Jeepday (talk) 17:55, 27 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Curiosity served: Biltmore opens servants' quarters at The San Diego Union-Tribune December 25, 2005
 * John Singer Sargent's George Washington Vanderbilt at jssgallery.org
 * Antiques of the Biltmore Estate at go-star.com

Images of America Biltmore Estate copyright 2005 Ellen Erwin Rickman and the Biltmore Company Arcadia Publishing Pg 15 George Washington Vanderbilt II died of complications following routine appendectomy March 6,1914 in Washington D.C.This G.W. Vanderbilt is the one who was born in 1862

Factual conflict
In the final paragraph of this article, there is an ambiguous sentence: "'She sold additional land as finances demanded; today, about 8,000 acres (32 km2) remain 12,500 acres (51 km2) remained.'" Could somebody with knowledge on this topic resolve this error, preferably with a citation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.71.141.231 (talk) 20:22, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Cathedral of All Souls
George Vanderbilt was also responsible for the construction of the Episcopal Cathedral of All Souls. Should this be mentioned in the article? --Willthacheerleader18 (talk) 04:13, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

II/III nonsense
I am removing the following bizarre, speculative and unsupported passage from the lead paragraph:"George Vanderbilt is frequently misidentified as George Washington Vanderbilt II. His grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt, fathered 13 children. A son born in 1832 was named George Washington Vanderbilt. He died in 1836. Cornelius’ 13th child was born in 1839 and named George Washington Vanderbilt II. William Henry Vanderbilt was also a son of Cornelius. His ninth child was therefore actually George Washington Vanderbilt III." The subject of this article was and always has been known as George Washington Vanderbilt II. Whether or not his family should have named him George Washington Vanderbilt III is irrelevant: that is not the name they gave him. An editor's personal evaluation of the name has no place in this article.--Jim10701 (talk) 01:11, 23 July 2011 (UTC)
 * The infobox and the lede identify him as III, which is at odds with the article title. Should they be changed? wintermute (talk) 01:40, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

It is accurate that he is the third Vanderbilt of that name and that the first died at the age of 4. I have spent time looking through all of the original documents of his that I can, and we have no record that he ever referred to himself as II OR as III--it was always just his name with no suffix. This includes his passports, personal correspondence, marriage banns, and membership applications for various organizations. To my knowledge, there is not a suffix on his birth certificate, death certificate, or will either. I think that it is pretty clear that there are many, many conflicting sources when it comes to his official name, so unless anyone has an issue with it I will be adding a sentence mentioning this point of contention. Henrylauren10 (talk) 17:53, 7 April 2017 (UTC) (member of the Biltmore Estate Curatorial team).

Requested move 2 February 2017

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Not moved The sources provided by George Ho suggest that moving this page at this time would not be in accordance with Wikipedia's verifiability requirement. As such, I am closing this discussion as not moved, since sources haven't been provided to verify it. This close should not prevent another good faith request for a move if sourcing can be found to verify the claim. (non-admin closure) TonyBallioni (talk) 18:27, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

George Washington Vanderbilt II → George Washington Vanderbilt III – I can see that there has been some contention on this point in this talk page, but as an employee of the Curatorial department at the Biltmore Estate created by George Vanderbilt, I can confirm that he was George Washington Vanderbilt III. The passage above regarding the name confusion that had been removed is indeed correct on all accounts. Here is a link to a Biltmore blog post about George, which confirms his suffix: http://www.biltmore.com/Blog/article/george-vanderbilt As the custodians of his Estate and the leading authorities on his life, I hope you will trust us on this one. Henrylauren10 (talk) 18:36, 2 February 2017 (UTC) --Relisting. Sky  Warrior  03:05, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi, Henrylauren10. I appreciate your good-faith on the proposal. However, you might want to read WP:conflict of interest as you are related to the estate. Meanwhile, for the proposal, I'll do my best to find verifiable sources soon. Shall I add your username in the Connected contributor template? --George Ho (talk) 08:30, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Sources referring to this person as "II": book about Anderson Cooper, Legendary Locals of Asheville, The Biltmore House, Life mag, et cetera.
 * Sources referring to this person as "III": some fiction(?) book (unreliable to me)
 * Sources using "III" would refer to the different person: Americapedia, book about Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, dictionary of Birds, book about World War II, New York Times (from Google)
 * I think sources using "III" would refer to George Washington Vanderbilt IV, which should have been "III", not "IV". "II" is "II", the sources say. George Ho (talk) 08:52, 9 February 2017 (UTC); edited. 08:57, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Source using "IV" for "III"/"IV": book about Lusitania. George Ho (talk) 02:56, 10 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Hi, George Ho. Thank you for bringing up these concerns. Our primary concern, of course, is accuracy, not necessarily painting George Vanderbilt in a good light. I understand the necessity of verifiability, so I'm working to find additional sources to corroborate my claim. I appreciate your help in this. Henrylauren10 (talk) 21:16, 14 February 2017 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. I'm glad to help. You can contact me, or alternatively go to WP:COIN or WP:Help desk. George Ho (talk) 22:08, 14 February 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

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Titanic reference
It says that George's mother may have been the one to warn them not to sail on Titanic because she had a premonition. However, if you look at the death date listed for his mother in the article on his father, you will note that she died around 16 years before Titanic sailed. BethHoneycutt1 (talk) 05:53, 1 March 2024 (UTC)