Eleanor Lansing Thomas "Elly" Elliott was a women's rights advocate who is best-known for successfully fighting Columbia University's attempt to take over Barnard College in the early 1970s. She served on the Barnard Board of Trustees for over 40 years beginning in 1959. She was President of the Board from 1973 to 1976. In the early 1950's, she served as the social secretary to the U.S. Secretary of State and her cousin, John Foster Dulles. In the 1970s she began serving on the board of directors of the Celanese Corporation. She was also a board member of the National Organization for Women's Legal Defense and Education Fund. In the 1980s, she served on the National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs. In the early 1990s, she was chairwoman of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. She was a Life Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and a Life Overseer of Weill Cornell Medical College. She received an honorary doctorate of letters from Duke University in 2002 for her "advocacy for women in health and education." Her husband of 48 years, Jock Elliott, was a former chairman of the advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather.
From the guide to the Eleanor Elliott Papers, 1768-2006 and undated (bulk 1951-2006), (Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University)
