Harry Whitney McVickar

Harry Whitney McVickar (September 2, 1860 – July 4, 1905) was an American artist, illustrator, and real estate investor who was prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age. Early life McVickar was born on September 2, 1860, in Irvington, New York, and grew up at the McVickar House. He was the son of the Rev. Dr. William Augustus McVickar (1827–1877), the first rector of the Church of St. Barnabas, and Frances Elizabeth "Fanny" (née Booth) McVickar (1829–1910). Among his siblings was William Bard McVickar, who married Mary Louisa Miller (daughter of George Macculloch Miller) and Anna McVickar. His paternal grandparents were Eliza (née Bard) McVickar and The Rev. John McVickar, an Episcopalian minister and two-time acting president of Columbia University who moved to Irvington to be close to his friends Washington Irving and John Jay, and to establish a school, which became what is known today as Bard College (named after his father's nephew by marriage, John Bard). Career McVickar started his career as an artist and illustrator, with his work appearing in Life and Harper's Bazaar, and is considered one of the founders of Vogue, which was then a weekly newspaper. He illustrated several books, including Daisy Miller and Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica (1895), and The Evolution of Woman (1896), published by Harper and Brothers.