American Art Collaborative

Sculptor, art patron, philanthropist. Founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Whitney was born in 1875 to Cornelius Vanderbilt II. In 1896, married Harry Payne Whitney, son of William C. Whitney, secretary of the Navy, 1885-1889. She studied sculpture under Henry Anderson, James Fraser and Andrew O'Connor. In 1907 she opened a studio in Greenwich Village's MacDougal Alley. She was active in WW I charities, and sponsored the opening of the American Ambulance Field Hospital, Juilly, France, ca. 1914. While continuing her work as a sculptor in New York and France, she also supported young artists and formed the group Friends of the Young Artists, and in 1930 organized the Whitney Museum of American Art, which officially opened Nov. 1931 in New York City.