Dorothy Payne Whitney
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Dorothy Payne Whitney (January 23, 1887 – 1968) was an American-born social activist and philanthropist and a member of the prominent Whitney family.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Washington, DC, at age 17 she came into a major inheritance following the death of her extremely wealthy father, businessman and statesman, William C. Whitney.
Her first marriage in 1911 was to Willard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918) an orphan from Oswego, New York who went to Cornell University and by the age of 30 was a powerful man amongst the international community trading in Peking, China. He died at the age of thirty-eight of influenza during the great epidemic while serving with the United States Army in France during World War I. Straight's will requested his wife to continue his philanthropic work in support of Cornell and in 1925 she built Willard Straight Hall, a student union building dedicated to her late husband's memory.
One of the wealthiest women in America in the early 20th century, Dorothy Whitney Straight was a philanthropist, social activist, supporting women's trade unions, educational and charitable organisations such as the Junior League of New York, becoming the first president of the Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. in 1921. She was also a founder with her husband of the weekly magazine The New Republic and the New School for Social Research.
Records of Dorothy Payne Whitney's in New York City, reveal the extent of her philanthropic work. She was a benefactor of the arts, feminist, and pacifist causes as well as social and labour reform. She lent financial support to progressive alternative education plus scholarly research. In 1937, she created in her father's name the William C. Whitney Foundation.
It was through the Cornell connection that in 1920 she met Major Leonard K. Elmhirst, from a Yorkshire landowning family, who was then studying Agriculture at Cornell University, and was seeking support for Cornell's Cosmopolitan Club which provided amenities for foreign students. They married in April 1925, and embarked on ambitious plans to recreate rural community life at Dartington Hall in Devon.
At Dartington she led the artistic developments, although she and Leonard also continued their world wide interests.
[edit] Children
[edit] With Willard Dickerman Straight
- Whitney Willard Straight (1912–1979)
- Beatrice Whitney Straight (1914–2001)
- Michael Whitney Straight (1916–2004)
[edit] With Leonard K. Elmhirst
- Ruth Elmhirst
- William Elmhirst
[edit] References
- Anonymous, Dartington, Webber & Bower, 1982
- Young, Michael, The Elmhirsts Of Dartington, The Creation Of A Utopian Community, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982
