Marked F. STEVENS, NYC. Capability of extending 2 1/2”.

Inscription reads: “Mrs. M. Annie Blaire Belvidere, N.J.
From Ellie, Sept. 25th 1868”

This collar was a gift to Mary Anna Blair (1837-1914), who is listed as living in Belvidere, NJ in the 1880 census. Her husband, Dewitt Clinton Blair (1833-1915), was one of the wealthiest men in the country. His father, entrepreneur and railroad magnate John Insley Blair, founded the family fortune and early on created a National Bank in Belvidere. Dewitt was born in Gravel Hill, later renamed Blairstown, NJ. He graduated from Princeton University with the class of 1856, later served as a Princeton trustee from 1900 to 1909, and was instrumental in expanding the campus and buildings (Insley, East and Locke) of Blair Presbyterian Academy. In 1907, Blair contributed towards the expansion of Blair Hall at Princeton, which had originally been built with his father's donation to the school. Blair, either outright or jointly with others, owned Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company (1846), Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (1852), Union Pacific Railroad (1860), and was president, director, or joint in more than 20 others. He managed his multimillion-dollar businesses from rural Blairstown, New Jersey, or from his private rail car, in which it was common for him to log 40,000 miles annually. As president of 16 railroad companies, he amassed a fortune estimated at $70 million, and owned the most rail mileage in the world. The Blair Estate in Belvidere, New Jersey, was built in 1865 and purchased by Blair in 1867. The estate was later purchased by the Presbyterian Synod of New Jersey for use as an old-age home. The site was eventually purchased by Warren County in 1970, and is now used for the Warren County Library and other county offices. Among Dewitt’s siblings was Emma Elizabeth Blair (wife of publisher Charles Scribner I); it seems likely that she gave the collar as a gift to their sister-in law shortly after her move to the Blair estate.