Alice Russell (Hobbins) Porter (1853-1926) was born February 9, 1853 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, the daughter of Joseph Hobbins (1816-1894) and Sarah Badger-Jackson (1816-1870). She moved to Madison, Wisconsin with her family in 1854. On March 7, 1884 she married Robert Percival Porter (1852-1917) in Madison. Alice began her career as a journalist in 1877, when she began working as a correspondent for several newspapers including the Milwaukee Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal with her base in Chicago. She also was a staff member of the Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean newspaper. In 1879 she moved to New York and worked as a correspondent for several western newspapers and New York papers. Before her marriage she visited Europe twice as a correspondent and must have worn this bodice on one of those trips. Supposedly she was the first female reporter sent to Paris as a newspaper correspondent. Porter was also a journalist. Born in England he moved to Chicago, where he worked for the US government as a census worker and on the tariff commission. He also worked for the Inter-Ocean. In 1887 he founded the New York Press, for which Alice wrote several articles. Her main interest was women's and children's welfare. Porter died in an automobile accident while working for the London Times.

She is the daughter on Joseph and Sarah Badger (Jackson) Hobbins.