Rail Car Grand Isle

[2] Although Webb was trained as a physician, his father-in-law, William Henry Vanderbilt, persuaded him to give up the medical profession and join the family's railroad enterprise instead.

As president of the Wagner Palace Car Company and then the Rutland Railroad from 1902-1905, Webb lived for part of the year in Shelburne, Vermont, from whence he commuted with relative ease to New York City.

Among them, others made by Wagner included the Ellsmere,[3] constructed in 1888, and the Mariquita, converted to a nursery car for a trip with family and friends between California and Alaska in 1888-89.

The car's mahogany-paneled parlor, elegant dining room, staterooms, and plush furnishings typified the private luxury cars that became important symbols of rank to railroad men, business tycoons, and public figures in the final quarter of the 19th century.

When the museum purchased the Grand Isle in 1960, its paneling had been painted, its fixtures replaced, and its lush fittings removed to convert it to use as a business car.