Elizabeth Blackmar

Elizabeth Blackmar, associate professor of history at Columbia University, focused on the changing perceptions of and contests over the social character of property in Gilded Age America, especially the legal history of eminent domain, taxation, and nuisance law. She researched the law of property rights with respect to families, slavery, business partnerships and corporations, and benevolent or religious organizations. She also drafted an article on a nineteenth century New York legal case that illustrates the changing conceptions of "family property" and the shift from land to investment capital in wealthy estates.