Orra White grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, and at age seventeen became preceptress and assistant to Edward Hitchcock at Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts. From 1813 until 1818, she taught astronomy, painting, drawing, and cartography. She and Edward were married in 1821. Orra created a 64-page herbarium of watercolor botanical specimens while she was still at the academy. For more than twenty years, she illustrated her husband’s lectures and books.