32 Facts About Caroline Hewins

Caroline Hewins was a librarian at the Hartford Young Men's Institute, which is known as the Hartford Public Library in Hartford, Connecticut for more than fifty years.

Caroline Hewins was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on October 10,1846.

Caroline Hewins's father was a wealthy Boston merchant who provided a comfortable home for his wife, children, and an extended family of aunts, uncles, and grandmothers.

Caroline Hewins briefly describes that during this time she learned about the inner-workings of the library and how it was managed and funded.

In 1911, Caroline Hewins was awarded an honorary master of arts degree from Hartford's Trinity College in recognition of her 51 years of service at the library.

Caroline Hewins was the first woman so honored by the college.

Caroline Hewins left the Boston Athenaeum to take a job as librarian at the Young Men's Institute of Hartford where she was employed from 1875 until her death in 1926.

Caroline Hewins shepherded the library through a number of important changes.

In 1892, Caroline Hewins oversaw the library's change from a private, subscription service to a free public library, and the Hartford Public Library was born.

Caroline Hewins is most often credited for her contributions to children's library services.

Caroline Hewins hired the library's first dedicated children's librarian in 1907.

The Institute Library had not welcomed children, but Caroline Hewins quickly changed that, and gathered together books by Grimm, Andersen, Hawthorne, Thackeray and Dickens to furnish a corner for them.

Caroline Hewins used the power of the local press and professional library periodicals to encourage parents to bring their children to libraries, to read with them, and to choose quality books that would inspire the young imagination.

Caroline Hewins was far ahead of her time in regards to building connections between the library and local schools.

Caroline Hewins partnered with local schools, often serving them tea at her house, so that children would have better access to library resources.

Caroline Hewins founded an Education Club for parents and teachers, which would later come to be known as the Parent-Teacher Association.

Caroline Hewins collected books to be used in city classrooms, and made the library a place for book groups, theatrical skits, exhibits and parties.

Caroline Hewins extended the services of the Institute to local schools by persuading them to find the means to pay the yearly fee for membership, that way the schools could have books from the library brought to them, allowing students to take advantage of the library right from the classroom.

Caroline Hewins was always thinking of ways to reach children and so when she traveled, particularly abroad, she wrote extensive letters to the library's young patrons.

Caroline Hewins was the first woman to give an address at its annual conference.

Caroline Hewins helped found the ALA's Children's Section in 1900.

In 1891 Caroline Hewins founded the first Connecticut State Library Committee, becoming its executive secretary.

Caroline Hewins writes that among her duties as secretary of the library committee, she would oversee the operations of the West Roxbury library in the absence of the regular librarian.

Caroline Hewins would drive her horse and buggy throughout the state to encourage cooperation between schools and libraries for the benefit of children.

In Caroline M Hewins and Books for Children, Jennie D Lindquist writes that when Caroline Hewins first began working at the Young Men's Institute of Hartford, the library charged a fee of at least several dollars per year for membership.

In New England Women: Their Increasing Influence, Margaret Bush writes that Caroline Hewins traveled in Connecticut to encourage the creation of libraries and talked to people about the importance of children's services.

Caroline Hewins died on November 4,1926, from pneumonia at the age of 80.

Caroline Hewins died at her home in Hartford just months after publishing her memoir, A Mid-Century Child and Her Books.

Caroline Hewins made of herself a center from which radiated an immeasurable influence, especially in the great revolution in the library world which, instead of banning the children, made them the first thought of the librarian who could look at the future as well as the present.

The legacy of Caroline Hewins continued through the Caroline M Hewins Lectures, so named by Frederic G Melcher.

Caroline Hewins is remembered through the Hewins scholarship, available to assist women who want to become children's librarians to attain their educational goals.

Posthumous honors to Caroline Hewins include induction into the American Library Association's Library Hall of Fame and the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.