In 1980 I embarked on a photographic exploration of the mansions of the Gilded Age, with their conspicuous displays of wealth. That era in America, from roughly 1870-1900, is marked by a period of unfettered capitalism facilitated by a lack of income tax—allowing immense wealth to accumulate in the hands of a few powerful industrialists.

With the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship, I photographed the robber barons’ “summer cottages” during the winter months, with covered furniture suggestive of a ghostly ambiance. Perhaps an allusion to a period that was thought to be long vanished, but  maybe not.

Photos by Len Jenshel