The history of the prestigious contest began in 1928 when the inventor of modern contract bridge, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, put the trophy bearing his name into play.
Winners receive replicas of the trophy, a practice initiated by Vanderbilt from the first running, and perpetuated under the terms of his will by a $100,000 trust fund that the ACBL administers.
ACBL Headquarters in Horn Lake, Mississippi, displays replicas donated by the families of Caroline Taylor, who won the Vanderbilt in 1928, and Helen Sobel Smith, a Vanderbilt winner in 1944 and 1945 as Helen Sobel.
Four Vanderbilt Trophy champions have successfully defended the title without change in personnel (intact), on five occasions: 1938, 1945, 1956–57, and 1976.
The triple winners from 1955 to 1957 were B. Jay Becker, John R. Crawford, George Rapée, Howard Schenken, Sidney Silodor, of whom Becker and Silodor were the 1944–45 winners with Charles Goren and Helen Sobel.