Throughout her adulthood, she was an advocate for forest conservation, women's rights, abolition of slavery, and equal educational opportunities for African-Americans.
Whitney was an individualist, who lived independently and cut her hair short, which annoyed her Victorian neighbors.
She wrote of her independent nature in one of her poems, "You are welcome, world, to criticize, carp and croak yourself hoarse if you will."
She was active in political, literary and artistic circles and supported liberal activists, sculptors and other artists, entertaining people like Harriet Hosmer and Edmonia Lewis at her home.
One of her friends and supporters was writer Annie Adams Fields, who found her to be a "noble, simple, strong living woman.

She purchased a house in Boston at 92 Mt. Vernon Street in 1876 and established a studio on its top floor.
The house, located in Beacon Hill is on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.
Six years later she purchased a farm in Shelburne, New Hampshire, with views overlooking Mount Washington, Mount Adams, and Mount Madison.
She lived at her home on Mt. Vernon Street until October 1893 when she moved to Beacon Street at the Charlesgate Hotel, near her statue of Leif Erikson on Commonwealth Avenue.
She lived with and shared her life with Abby Adeline Manning (1836–1906), who devoted her life to Whitney.
Whitney Manning lived abroad in the 1860s and 1870s, in Rome, Florence, and Paris.
They had what was called a "Boston marriage", a term for a long-term relationship between upper-class, educated women, which was generally accepted within the community.
Fields said of the relationship, "the two women complement and repose each other."

Whitney died on January 23, 1915, in Boston, Massachusetts of cancer and was buried in Cambridge at Mount Auburn Cemetery alongside Abby Adeline Manning.
Throughout her adulthood, she was an advocate for forest conservation, women's rights, abolition of slavery, and equal educational opportunities for African-Americans. Whitney was an individualist, who lived independently and cut her hair short, which annoyed her Victorian neighbors. She wrote of her independent nature in one of her poems, "You are welcome, world, to criticize, carp and croak yourself hoarse if you will." She was active in political, literary and artistic circles and supported liberal activists, sculptors and other artists, entertaining people like Harriet Hosmer and Edmonia Lewis at her home. One of her friends and supporters was writer Annie Adams Fields, who found her to be a "noble, simple, strong living woman.
She purchased a house in Boston at 92 Mt. Vernon Street in 1876 and established a studio on its top floor. The house, located in Beacon Hill is on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. Six years later she purchased a farm in Shelburne, New Hampshire, with views overlooking Mount Washington, Mount Adams, and Mount Madison. She lived at her home on Mt. Vernon Street until October 1893 when she moved to Beacon Street at the Charlesgate Hotel, near her statue of Leif Erikson on Commonwealth Avenue. She lived with and shared her life with Abby Adeline Manning (1836–1906), who devoted her life to Whitney. Whitney Manning lived abroad in the 1860s and 1870s, in Rome, Florence, and Paris. They had what was called a "Boston marriage", a term for a long-term relationship between upper-class, educated women, which was generally accepted within the community. Fields said of the relationship, "the two women complement and repose each other."
Whitney died on January 23, 1915, in Boston, Massachusetts of cancer and was buried in Cambridge at Mount Auburn Cemetery alongside Abby Adeline Manning.
Anne Whitney