List of Miss Porter's School alumnae

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

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
• Hayley Petit (2007) – victim of the Cheshire murders

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