The following is a list of notable Ancients (alumnae) from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut.
1850s Eliza Talcott – attended in the 1850s; founder of Kobe College
1870s Grace Hoadley Dodge (1873) – established Columbia University Teachers’ College Nellie Grant (1873) – daughter of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady Julia Grant Mary Knight Wood (1875) – pianist, music educator and composer Julia Lathrop (1876) – first woman to head a government agency in the United States
1880s
Helen Gilman Noyes Brown (1881) – philanthropist Edith Hamilton (1886) – Greek mythology scholar; sister of Alice Hamilton Alice Hamilton (1888) – first female faculty member of the Harvard Medical School; founder of the field of industrial medicine Theodate Pope Riddle (1888) – architect and philanthropist; architect and founder of Avon Old Farms School; architect of Westover School – via
1890s
Madeline McDowell Breckinridge (1890) – a leader of the women's suffrage movement, a leading Progressive reformer, and great-granddaughter of Henry Clay Ruth Hanna McCormick (1897) – member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois and the first woman to run for the U.S. Senate Princess Anastasia of Greece and Denmark (née Nonie May Stewart) – American-born wife of Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark, the son of King George I of Greece
1910s
Edith Roelker Curtis (1912) – author, historian, and diarist Dorothy Keeley Aldis (1914) – children's author and poet Emily Hale (1916) – speech and drama teacher, and muse of T.S. Eliot
1920s
1930s
Barbara Hutton (1930) – socialite, dubbed "Poor Little Rich Girl" Gloria Vanderbilt – artist, writer, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite Edith Bouvier Beale (1935) – socialite; cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; subject of the documentary film Grey Gardens Anne Cox Chambers (1938) – U.S. Ambassador to Belgium during the Carter administration Gene Tierney (1938) – Academy Award-nominated actress Brenda Frazier (1939) – socialite
1940s
Polly Allen Mellen (1942) – editor of Vogue magazine Dina Merrill (née Nedenia Hutton) (1943) – actress and American socialite Letitia Baldrige Hollensteiner (1943) – author and social secretary to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (1947) – former First Lady of the United States Patience Cleveland (1948) – actress and published author Lilly Pulitzer (née Lillian Lee McKim) (1949) – fashion designer and American socialite
1950s
Lee Radziwill (née Bouvier) (1950) – public relations executive for Giorgio Armani, author, and younger sister of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Elizabeth Cushman Titus Putnam (1951) – founding president of the Student Conservation Association (SCA) and recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal Laura Rockefeller Chasin (1954) – socialite Elise Ravenel Wood du Pont (1954) – former First Lady of Delaware and 1984 Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Barbara Babcock (1955) – Emmy Award-winning actress for Hill Street Blues Pema Chödrön (formerly Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) (1955) – Buddhist nun and author; resident director of Gampo Abbey Agnes Gund (1956) – president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and 1997 recipient of the National Medal of Arts
1960s Mimi Alford (1961) – former White House intern who wrote a book about her affair with John F. Kennedy Sheila Ford Hamp (1969) – owner of the Detroit Lions
1970s
Elizabeth May (1972) – the first elected Green Party Member of Parliament in Canada and leader of the Green Party of Canada Dorothy Bush Koch (1977) – philanthropist and member of the Bush political family Sarah Ludlow Blake (1978) – writer
1980s
Susannah Grant (1980) – director and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter for Erin Brockovich Gregg Renfrew (1986) – entrepreneur and founder of Beautycounter Mary Anne Amirthi Mohanraj (1989) – writer and editor
1990s
Chrishaunda Lee (1994) – niece of Oprah Winfrey and hostess of PBS programming
2000s Mamie Gummer (2001) – actress; daughter of actress Meryl Streep – via Hayley Petit (2007) – victim of the Cheshire murders – via
Fictional alumnae In the 2003 drama Mona Lisa Smile, Joan Brandwyn's student file reveals that she attended Miss Porter's School, though the film incorrectly locates it in Pennsylvania. In the 2000 drama The Skulls, Chloe is stated to have attended Miss Porter's School. In the series Gossip Girl, a guest character by the name of Shelby Wright goes to Miss Porter's. In the series Mad Men, Sally Draper attended Miss Porter's.
References