Elmhirst, Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight, 1887-1968

Dorothy Payne Whitney, daughter of William C. Whitney, a financier and Secretary of the Navy under President Grover Cleveland, married Willard Dickerman Straight in 19ll. Straight died in 1918, and she married Leonard Knight Elmhirst in 1925. Dorothy and Elmhirst purchased Dartington Hall, Devon, England, reconstructed the 14th century manor and founded a school on the property. Dartington Hall became a center for the arts and a leading coeducational progressive school. The New School for Social Research in New York was begun with the backing of the Whitney Estate in 1919. Dorothy was involved with the New York State Food Commission, the Women's Liberty Loan Committee, the Social Unit Plan, the Junior League, the War Camp Service Committee, the Women's Emergency Committee of the European Relief Council, the New School for Social Research, the Tuberculosis Preventorium for Children, the Pueblos Defense Committee, and the Mayor's Committee of Women on National Defense. She supported individual students at Bordentown Military Academy and Hobart College, and helped to found THE NEW REPUBLIC.

Dorothy Payne Elmhirst (née Whitney; January 23, 1887 – December 14, 1968) was an American-born social activist, philanthropist, publisher and a member of the prominent Whitney family. Whitney was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Flora (née Payne) and William Collins Whitney, the United States Secretary of the Navy during the first Cleveland administration from 1885 through 1889. he attended the Chapin School. At age 17, she came into a major inheritance, approximately $15,000,000 (equivalent to $488,555,556 in 2022 dollars), following the death of her extremely wealthy father.[2][3]


Mrs. Willard Straight by Flameng
One of the wealthiest women in America in the early 20th century, Dorothy Whitney Straight was a philanthropist and social activist who supported women's trade unions and educational and charitable organizations such as the Junior League of New York. Her first marriage in 1911 was to Willard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918), the son of Henry H. Straight, 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.[5] Together, they had three children:

Whitney Willard Straight (1912–1979), who married Lady Daphne Margarita Finch-Hatton (1913–2003), the daughter of Guy Finch-Hatton, the 14th Earl of Winchilsea[6]
Beatrice Whitney Straight (1914–2001), who married Louis Dolivet (1908–1989), then later Peter Cookson (1913–1990)[7][8]
Michael Whitney Straight (1916–2004), who first married Belinda Crompton, then later Nina Gore Auchincloss (the daughter of Hugh D. Auchincloss and the step-sister of Jackie Kennedy), and lastly, Katharine Gould[9]

Willard Straight Hall at Cornell, opened in 1925.
Straight died at the age of 38 of influenza during the 1918 pandemic while serving with the United States Army in France during World War I.[10] 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.[11]

Second marriage
In 1920, she met Leonard Knight Elmhirst (1893–1974), an Englishman 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.[11] They married in April 1925, and embarked on ambitious plans to recreate rural community life at Dartington Hall in Devon.[2] Together, they had two children: Ruth Elmhirst (1926–1986), who married Maurice Ash (1917–2003) in 1947,[12][13] and William Elmhirst (born 1929).

George Bernard Shaw called Dartington a "salon in the countryside": it attracted British intellectuals like Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard, and the American constitutional psychologist William Sheldon.[14] At Dartington she led local artistic developments, founding Dartington College of Arts and Dartington International Summer School – although she and Leonard also continued their worldwide interests. On April 26, 1935, she renounced her United States citizenship.[15]

Dorothy Payne Whitney Elmhirst died on December 14, 1968.[16] Dorothy was known for building the Willard Straight Hall at Cornell University, founding The New Republic, founding New School for Social Research, being the founding president of Association of Junior Leagues International, founding the William C. Whitney Foundation, renovating Dartington Hall and its gardens, founding the Dartington Hall Trust, founding the Dartington Hall School, founding the Dartington College of Arts, and hosting the Dartington International Summer School from 1953.[4]