<p class="ingestion featured-caption">The dining room at Marble House.Gavin Ashworth — The Preservation Society of Newport County</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>I've toured eight Gilded Age mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Hudson Valley, New York.</li><li>The mansions feature incredible displays of wealth such as walls covered in gold and silver.</li></ul><p>The opulent mansions of the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vintage-photos-how-americas-rich-tycoons-lived-during-gilded-age-2023-3">Gilded Age</a>'s wealthiest families once required exclusive invitations to visit. Today, many of them are museums open to the public.</p><p>As a history buff and fan of HBO's "<a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shows-like-the-gilded-age-period-dramas-society-class-2024-1">The Gilded Age</a>," I've toured eight Gilded Age mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Hudson Valley in New York.</p><p>The term "Gilded Age," coined by Mark Twain and derived from the practice of coating surfaces in a decorative layer of gold, was meant to critique the underbelly of inequality, exploitation, and corruption that enabled an elite few to amass enormous fortunes.</p><p>I've often been rendered speechless upon walking into rooms with marble walls, gilded ceilings, and priceless art. It was even more unbelievable when I learned that the families who built these palatial homes often only lived in them for a few weeks out of every year.</p><p>Take a look at the most extravagant, and often impractical, displays of wealth I've seen at historic Gilded Age mansions.</p>