The so-called American dollar princesses were wealthy American women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who married into titled European families, exchanging wealth for prestige.
According to a book called Titled Americans (1915), there were 454 marriages between Gilded Age and Progressive Era American women and European aristocrats.[1] The Library of Congress claimed in a reference guide that "American heiresses married more than a third of the House of Lords."[1] The Spectator claims that among the marriages were 102 "British aristocrats", including "six dukes."[2]
The phrase seems to appear frequently as a trope of fiction, such as in Georgina Norway's Tregarthen (1896):[10]
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. I may tell you, in confidence, strict confidence, that I often dare not send Madame Elise's bills to the earl! But you must must try, my dear. We must look out for an American dollar princess for you. 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."[11]
The Buccaneers, a 1938 novel by Edith Wharton, is set in this milieu.[5]
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."[12]