The Biltmore Estate preserves the history, art, and architecture associated with the Vanderbilt family’s vast Gilded Age estate in Asheville, North Carolina. This article argues that through pricing and curation, the Biltmore inadvertently recreates the stratified class systems of the Gilded Age in modern-day museum-goers. This example provides an opportunity to observe the visitor class systems present in other museums—such as Colonial Williamsburg, the International Spy Museum, the Tenement Museum, and the Tate Modern—and to theorize the different forms they may take: the free entry model, the flat fee, the two-tiered admission system, and the add-on system.
