Doris Duke

Who was Doris Duke?

Doris Duke was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist.

Daughter of an immensely wealthy tobacco tycoon, Duke was able to fund a life of global travel and wide-ranging interests. These extended across journalism, competition surfing, jazz piano, wildlife conservation, Oriental art and Hare Krishna.

Much of her work centered on her father's estate, Duke Farms at Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, where she created many elaborately-themed gardens, furnished with artifacts acquired on her world travels, including one of America's largest indoor botanical displays. She was also active in preserving more than eighty historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island.

Twice married and divorced, Duke enjoyed a colorful private life that was seldom out of the gossip columns.

Her philanthropic work continued into old age, some of it unknown to the public during her lifetime, and her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity.