Flora Miller Biddle
Flora Miller Biddle (born 1928) is an American author, honorary chairman, and former president of the Whitney Museum of American Art, serving from 1977 to 1995. She is a granddaughter of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the founder of the Whitney Museum. Biography Biddle was born to Flora Payne Whitney, a daughter of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Harry Payne Whitney. Gertrude was a great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt while Harry was a son of William Collins Whitney, former United States Secretary of the Navy in the Cleveland administration and a descendant of Eli Whitney, inventor of the Cotton gin. She attended Barnard College but dropped out in 1947 to marry Michael Henry Irving (1923-2003), a Harvard graduate who served in the Navy. He later received a degree from Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and became an architect. Irving was the son of Carolyn Mann Irving (1891-1987) and Evelyn duPont Irving (1886-1968), a nephew of Washington Irving and descendant of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, founder of the DuPont company. They married in June 1947 and had four children. She became a museum trustee in 1958 and president of the Whitney in 1977. During her tenure as president of the Whitney