Storytime with Corey Meet the Woman Who Was the Driving Force Behind the Straight While the Hill’s beloved student union is named for her late husband, Dorothy Whitney Straight Elmhirst made it happen Throughout the 2025–26 academic year, the University is celebrating the Straight’s centennial—and Cornellians is joining in the festivities with a series of stories (plus a few articles from our backlist), trivia quizzes, photo features, and more! Visual quiz • Building history • Willard Straight 1901 biography • The Stump • Straight Cookies • Willard & Dorothy’s love letters By Corey Ryan Earle ’07 As Willard Straight Hall celebrates its centennial in 2025, many tributes rightfully celebrate its namesake. But the full story of this beloved campus landmark is that of an exceptional woman—Willard’s widow—who led her own life of adventure, philanthropy, and activism. Dorothy Payne Whitney was born into the upper echelon of Gilded Age society in 1887, the daughter of U.S. Secretary of the Navy William Whitney and socialite Flora Payne Whitney. The Whitney patriarch was a cunning politician and businessman who, as NYC’s corporation counsel, fought the Tammany Hall regime. He played an influential role in Grover Cleveland’s successful 1892 presidential campaign, and had a hand in many of the city’s commercial and banking interests. William and Flora were members of the so-called “400”—a group of NYC society’s wealthiest and most influential families, like the Astors and Vanderbilts. Dorothy as a child. Flora reveled in the social events of the time, attending extravagant balls, and, according to one biographer, “sponsoring an endless round of entertainments that were ludicrous in size and grandeur.” This was the life of luxury in which young Dorothy was immersed—where her parents focused their wealth on themselves more than philanthropic causes. However, when Dorothy was 11, her uncle Oliver Hazard Payne played a key role in establishing Cornell’s medical school in NYC, funding its first building and offering to cover any deficit that the school might face in its first five years. Both Dorothy’s parents died before her 18th birthday, making her one of the wealthiest young women in New York society. But it quickly became clear that she would choose a path unlike that of her parents and three older siblings. Dorothy donated her used clothing to the poor and volunteered at the Henry Street Settlement, assisting low-income immigrant families. Both Dorothy’s parents died before her 18th birthday, making her one of the wealthiest young women in New York society. She cultivated a wide range of hobbies and interests and enrolled in a political economy course at Columbia, particularly unusual for a fashionable woman of her time. As she wrote: “I am filled with that terribly absorbing desire to work, and help, and carry through something which may be useful.” She joined the newly formed Junior League, a group of women who worked to improve conditions in the city’s poverty-stricken areas. She served several terms as president, and in 1921, 29 chapters combined to elect her the first president of what became the Association of Junior Leagues International. As each new progressive cause—undernourished school children, unsafe working conditions, women’s suffrage—came to her attention, Dorothy became a supporter. She made donations to the Consumers’ League, Red Cross, and State Charities Aid. With Willard after their marriage. When she heard an orphan girl would be incarcerated, she obtained custody and found her a job. Gossip columns called her “radical,” and her family considered her an enigma. As a society heiress, Dorothy had no shortage of accomplished suitors, but she remained unattached. I am filled with that terribly absorbing desire to work, and help, and carry through something which may be useful. However, her path began to intersect with Willard Straight, a man seven years her senior. At the time, Willard was acting head of the Far East Bureau of the U.S. State Department. Born into modest means, he was unlike most of Dorothy’s admirers, but he was confident, ambitious, and charming. One of Willard’s love letters to Dorothy, whom he often addressed as “Princesse.” On a world tour, Dorothy spent two weeks in China hosted by Willard, where a romantic spark was lit. They began an extensive and affectionate correspondence. After several months, Willard wrote that he was “crossing half the world” to see her, reaching her in Milan to propose in May 1910. But Dorothy wasn’t quite ready, and her friends and family were skeptical of Willard and his intentions. Gossip columns called her ‘radical,’ and her family considered her an enigma. (It didn’t help that he’d had previous romances with two other wealthy heiresses.) Willard continued his efforts for a year, and Dorothy accepted his proposal in June 1911; the two wed that September, less than two years after their romance bloomed in China. With their first child, Whitney. Marriage didn’t slow down Dorothy’s incredible breadth of philanthropic and volunteer activity. She and her husband helped launch the New Republic magazine, which continues today. When Willard enlisted in the Army during World War I, Dorothy dedicated her time to organizations like the Women’s Liberty Loan Committee, the Young Men’s Christian Association, and the Red Cross. She chaired the Mayor’s Committee of Women on National Defense, organizing community kitchen volunteers, thrift savings campaigns, and recreation programs for soldiers. (After the war, she chaired the Women’s Emergency Committee of the European Relief Council to aid children and refugees, lobbied for Indigenous rights of the Pueblo peoples, helped found the New School for Social Research, assisted the Women’s Trade Union League, and served as a trustee of Columbia Teachers College.) When Willard died from influenza while in Paris in 1918, Dorothy tackled his last wish that she “do such thing or things for Cornell University as she may think most fitting and useful to make the same a more human place.” With family at her 1925 wedding to Leonard Elmhirst. Unwilling to leave the project in the hands of Cornell’s faculty—who were skeptical of a community space that would encourage women to socialize with men—Dorothy visited other colleges and universities to get ideas for a student union building, and she insisted that Cornell’s be coeducational. Dorothy visited other colleges and universities to get ideas for a student union building, and she insisted that Cornell’s be coeducational. The result was a beautiful and useful memorial to her late husband that opened in 1925. During this process, she met and married another Cornell alum: Leonard Elmhirst 1921. In her later years. The two purchased Dartington Hall, an English country estate that they developed into a hub of progressive educational and artistic programs. The Dartington Trust continues to operate a range of activities to sustain their legacy. When Dorothy died in 1968, she had outlived Willard by half a century—decades she spent building a legacy of her own. Her extraordinary dedication to social justice, education, and human dignity touched countless lives across continents. While Willard Straight Hall bears her late husband’s name, it embodies Dorothy’s values as an inclusive, community-focused hub. An expert on Big Red lore, Corey Ryan Earle ’07 teaches “The First American University,” a wildly popular spring semester course on Cornell history. (Top: Image courtesy of Library of Congress; photo illustration by Ashley Osburn / Cornell University. All other photos courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections.) Published October 13, 2025 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Cornelliana 150 Years of Mechanical Engineering on the Hill: Fascinating Facts Alumni Fresh from Sustainability Success in NYC, Alum Leads Cornell’s ‘2030 Project’ on Climate Change Glorious to View A Look at Reunions of Yesteryear, Saturated in Big Red Spirit