They were often the daughters of nouveau riche industrialists whose families wanted to gain social standing.
[2] The Library of Congress claimed in a reference guide that "American heiresses married more than a third of the House of Lords".
[3] The phrase seems to appear frequently as a trope of fiction, such as in Georgina Norway's Tregarthen (1896):[11] With Coventry so expensive a man, and Algernon's debts always coming to be paid off, and the girls unmarried, I can assure you that we are awfully poor ourselves.
They expect a title, certainly, in general, but we must hope.A 1920 book review described a new novel as "plot simplicity itself, being concerned essentially with the struggle of two wealthy girls, a vulgar American 'Dollar Princess' and a charming Lancashire lass, for the love of a young farmer baronet who cleaves, like his forefathers, to the old religion.
A 2023 Library Journal review of a title in the "Gilded Age Heiresses" romance-novel series describes a plot scenario wherein "American 'Dollar Princess' Camille, now the Dowager Duchess of Hereford after her horrible husband's death, decides to ask Jacob Thorne, co-owner of an infamous club and the illegitimate son of an earl, for help discovering if she can find pleasure with a man.