Giles was born on April 27, 1892 in
Cold Spring, New York. The parents of Dorothy Giles, Richard Giles (1861–1918) and Ida Rosina Webb married in June 1891, in New York City. Richard Giles was a physician who practiced medicine on Fair Street in Cold Spring,
Putnam County, New York. Dorothy Giles's brother Richard L. Giles was born in 1895. Dorothy Giles studied art and languages and graduated from the
Cathedral School of St. Mary, the sister school of St. Paul's School in Garden City, New York. While pursuing her career as a journalist, Dorothy Giles, for many years, grew vegetables, flowers, and fruits in a home garden in Cold Spring, her hometown along the banks of the
Hudson River. and the 1926 book
The Little Kitchen Garden. Giles wrote two travel books:
The Road Through Spain (1929) and
The Road Through Czechoslovakia (1930).
Tomáš Masaryk, President of Czechoslovakia, honored her for her 1930 travel book — she became the first woman to receive the silver medal of the
Order of the White Lion, Knight Class. — the food historian Cynthia Clampitt called the book a "classic". Among
Dartmouth College Library's archival and manuscript collections, there is the
Singing Valleys typescript with handwritten corrections and printer's marks. In 1949,
G. P. Putnam's Sons published Giles's book
A candle in her hand; a story of the nursing schools of Bellevue Hospital. She was a member of the American Craftsmen's Educational Council, which initiated the exhibition "Designer Craftsmen U.S.A. 1953". The exhibition opened at the
Brooklyn Museum and was subsequently displayed at the
Art Institute of Chicago and the
San Francisco Museum of Art. The 72-page exhibition catalogue contains 111 black-and-white images and a 10-page essay by Dorothy Giles. After Dorothy Giles died in December 1960, her collaborator Irma Franklin completed their historical and genealogical compilation
Thomas Davenport, Philipstown pioneer, 1682-1759, and his descendants, which was published in 1962 by the Putnam County Historical Society. ==References==