[1] Her younger brother Henry Plumer McIhenny was a noted art collector, curator, and philanthropist.

[2] She studied art with Arthur Beecher Carles,[3][4] and graduated from Smith College in 1925.

[9] She sold much of her art collections in the 1970s,[10] but donated some paintings to the museum, and to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[3] including paintings, pastels, and statues from Picasso, Matisse, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, O'Keeffe, Nevelson, Rothko, and Bronzino.

"[11] She was a trustee of Drexel University, and served on the Bicentennial Committee of the city of Philadelphia.

[13] Illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith painted a portrait of Bonnie McIlhenny as a girl;[14] Andy Warhol photographed her in her seventies.