The Gilded Age, HBO’s period drama following from Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes, returns for a third season of rich people behaving badly on June 22.
The title refers to the real historical period in the late 19th century when industrialists amassed immense fortunes and dominated the most exclusive social circles in Manhattan and Newport, Rhode Island. In the show, much of the drama is fueled by a sort of cold war between the “old money” families and the “nouveau rich” families, who have newly made their money in the booming railroad industry.
The Gilded Age is fiction, but informed deeply by history, with several characters that are based on real people. From the socialites who ran the big parties of the day to the leaders representing key causes of the time, like women’s suffrage, here are The Gilded Age characters inspired by real historical figures.
Mrs. Astor 
A 1903 portrait of American socialite Caroline Webster Schermerhorn, wife of William Astor. The Print Collector/Heritage Images—Getty Images
Played by: Donna Murphy
Known for: Social gatekeeping
Caroline Schermerhorn Astor was at the top of the Gilded Age social scene, representing a family that amassed its wealth through the fur trade and real estate. She was known for hosting lavish parties, attended by New York’s elite, and as The Gilded Age shows, she represented an “old money” set and looked down upon socialites like the Vanderbilts who represented “new money,” especially from the booming railroad business. Mrs. Astor split her time between a townhouse in Manhattan—where the Empire State Building currently stands—and a mansion in Newport called Beechwood.
Ward McAllister
Rabble-rouser Ward McAllister Bettmann Archive
Played by: Nathan Lane
Known for: Hobnobbing
The social climber became famous for coining the term “the 400,” referring to the 400 most influential people in New York. He was one of the first of his Manhattan crowd to summer in Newport, Rhode Island, helping to make it a destination for some of the country’s richest families. As The Gilded Age shows, he fell out with many of the socialites when he started leaking stories about them to the press and published the 1890 tell-all Society as I Have Found It.
Mamie Fish
Played by: Ashlie Atkinson
Known for: Themed parties
The socialite was known for hosting outrageous themed parties at her Upper East Side townhouse, country estate in the Hudson River Valley, and her mansion in Newport. At one party, guests could only talk in “baby talk,” at each other while dressed up as dolls. At another, they fed peanuts to elephants that roamed her property.
Charlotte Drayton
Played by: Hannah Shealy
Known for: Scandal
As The Gilded Age shows, the daughter of Mrs. Astor became the talk of the town when it was revealed that she cheated on her husband James Coleman Drayton with their neighbor Hallett Alsop Borrowe.