Thayer attended Winsor School in Boston and showed an early aptitude for drawing which her mother encouraged by arranging for her to take after-school lessons with Beatrice Van Ness , who had been a student of Benson , Tarbell and Philip L. Hale . She transferred to Westover School in Middlebury , CT , and after graduation embarked with her mother and brother on a tour of the Orient which culminated in her witnessing the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 , an event she viewed as a turning point in her perception of life
Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Polly Thayer Starr