Amy (Bend) Bishop (1870-1957)

She and all four members of her family were listed in 1892 among the Mrs Astor's hallowed "Four Hundred" reflecting their position in society. Her father, George, had been a well-connected and successful stockbroker until his bankruptcy was declared at about the same time as his death. Amy's subsequent downturn both financially and socially - and her hunt for a suitable husband to restore her seat in society - led Edith Wharton to use her as her inspiration for Lily Bart in The House of Mirth.

Amy certainly set her sights high: She was rumored to have been close to marrying John Jacob Astor IV and in 1893 her engagement to A. Lanfear Norrie was publicly announced at a ball, but she broke it off less than a month later. She was a close friend of Emily Vanderbilt Sloane (afterwards Mrs Hammond) but their relationship may have suffered after Amy's next engagement was announced in 1897 to Emily's uncle William Kissam Vanderbilt (thirty years her senior). The engagement was subsequently called off and two years later (1899) Amy finally married the aviation pioneer and art collector Cortlandt Field Bishop by whom she was survived by one daughter, Beatrice Bishop Berle. 

They first lived in New York at 13 Madison Avenue before commissioning 15 East 67th Street in 1903. They summered at Lenox in the Berkshires and were associated with "The Maples" and "Winter Palace" before building "Ananda Hall" in 1926 (demolished in 1940).