Early history and Sarah Porter of
Sarah Porter, the founder of Miss Porter's School Miss Porter's School was established in 1843 by education reformer
Sarah Porter. She was insistent that the school's curriculum include chemistry, physiology, botany, geology, and astronomy in addition to the more traditional subjects taught in girls' schools. Also encouraged were such athletic opportunities as tennis and horseback riding; in 1867, the school formed its own baseball team, the Tunxises, named after the
Saukiog tribe who once settled the area on which the school is situated.
Founding and early years (1843–1903) In 1884, Sarah Porter hired her former student, Mary Elizabeth Dunning Dow, with whom she began to share more of her duties as head of school. From then until her death in 1900, Porter gradually relinquished her control of the school to Dow. Sarah Porter's will named her nephew,
Robert Porter Keep, as executor of her estate, of which the school was the most valuable asset. Dow's compensation for her position as sole head of school was also specified in the will. As executor, Robert Keep began extensive repairs and renovations to the school. While Dow continued to receive a salary as per Porter's will, she became convinced that Keep, in diverting the school's income to pay for construction, was enriching his inheritance with funds that were rightfully hers. The conflict escalated and culminated in Dow's resignation in 1903. She moved to
Briarcliff, New York, taking with her as many as 140 students and 16 faculty members, and began
Mrs. Dow's School for Girls, which would become
Briarcliff Junior College, absorbed in 1977 into
Pace University.
Leadership transitions (1903–1943) Robert Keep announced in July 1903 that the school would reopen in October 1903 with his wife, Elizabeth Vashti Hale Keep, as head of school, 11 teachers, and between five and 16 students in attendance. After Keep died on July 3, 1904, Elizabeth Keep continued to work at the school. One of her many legacies was a kindergarten for children of employees. When Mrs. Keep died in 1917, leadership of the school passed to her stepson, Robert Porter Keep, Jr., a German teacher at
Phillips Academy. From 1917 until the school's centennial celebrations in 1943, he and his wife remained heads of school at Miss Porter's.
Modernization and growth (1943–2000) The school was incorporated as a nonprofit institution in 1943, emphasizing its purpose as a college preparatory school rather than a finishing school. Ward Lamb Johnson had been the headmaster of the
Lawrence School for 22 years when he and his wife joined the Farmington community in 1943. He retired 11 years later. During their tenure, Leila Dilworth Jones '44 Memorial Library was opened. They also increased faculty housing. The
MPS Bulletin stated: "by the early 1950s the scholastic standing of Miss Porter's was among the highest in the country." Mary Norris (née Frick) French and her husband Hollis Stratton French served as co-principals of the school from 1954 to 1966. In 1966, then headmaster of the
Buffalo Seminary Richard W. Davis was selected to be headmaster at Miss Porter's. He was to free the school of its "reputation of being too restrictive and too conservative." His appointment marked the first time in a half-century that the school would be directed by one person instead of a couple. Reflecting on his tenure at the school, Davis recalled, "We no longer required that girls wear head coverings in bad weather. We allowed pants to be worn, neat ones, to classes, but not to the dining room. We gradually dropped the requirement that all meals were 'sit-down', with assigned seating. The changes did not come all at once, yet each one brought some dissent. Certain faculty members felt that standards were slipping." quickly took on administrative roles in addition to teaching history. First he was department chair and then director of development. There followed the appointment to be assistant headmaster, and then to be the ninth head of Miss Porter's School. A native of Wales, an accomplished cellist, and holding a Ph.D. in Spanish literature, Belash was inaugurated 10th head of Miss Porter's School for a term beginning in 1983. She was devoted to renewing single-sex education for girls and spoke widely on the topic, as well as writing for
The New York Times. One report called her a "visionary".
thumb|left|A banner hanging in a themed guest room in the Timothy Cowles House, at Miss Porter's School, gives insight into how Porter's girls lived during the mid-1900s. In July 1992, Marianna "Muffin" Mead O'Brien began her term as head of school, following Belash's abrupt resignation at the end of June, and having served the school in years prior on the board of trustees from 1976 to 1983, and, respectively, as parent to three alumnae. Drawing on her experience of 25 years at the
Groton School, during which she had "helped start the coeducation program, taught history, tutored reading, and was in the human relations and sexuality counseling faculty," O'Brien served a one-year term between the Belash and Ford administrations. M. Burch Tracy Ford was dean of students at
Milton Academy and a residential counselor at the
Groton School before coming to Miss Porter's. In 1994, she wrote in a letter to the editor of
The New York Times, that “Coed classrooms are the norm, but the norm does not serve girls well; it needs to be challenged, and ultimately changed. Single-sex education is counterculture, but it's good for girls.” In the 1990s, the campus underwent multiple expansion projects to add new academic buildings. The head of school has been Katherine Windsor . Windsor previously ran the
Center for Talented Youth program at
Johns Hopkins University and
the Sage School in
Foxborough, Massachusetts. In the 2020s, the school changed its
academic term from a semester system to a trimester system. In 2025,
Town & Country noted that Miss Porter's was among "the most prominent" girls' schools that accepted applicants who
identify as girls and allowed continued enrollment for students who
transition. ==Finances==