Hartford History Center
Young at Heart
Doll Parties, Teas, Parades and Plays – Caroline Maria Hewins, “First Lady of the Library,” Reaches Out to the Children of Hartford
“We Yankees, in our intense longing for usefulness, teach many facts which may well be left until manhood and womanhood, and appeal too little to the sense of beauty which, if not found in childhood, is forever lost.” - Caroline Hewins, Hartford Courant, November 16, 1875
When you look at Hartford Public Library today with its exemplary services for youth and families, its diverse programming supporting immigrants and refugees, its emphasis on arts and multiculturalism and its commitment to adult education, it's no wonder this institution holds dear the distinguished work of Caroline M. Hewins, Hartford’s “First Lady of the Library.” She planted the seeds.
Click here for Hog River Journal's Summer 2007 story, "Hartford's First Lady of the Library" by Susan Bivin Aller
Fresh from training at the Boston Athenaeum, Caroline Maria Hewins came to Hartford in 1875 to begin a new job as librarian of the Hartford Young Men’s Institute, the predecessor to Hartford Public Library. She held this position for 50 years, stewarding the 19th century private subscription association as it grew into a thriving 20th century public library. Along the way, Hewins earned a national reputation as an imaginative, spirited and dedicated leader, especially well regarded for her library work with children.
To realize the degree of change that took place under Hewins’ leadership, compare two primary sources - the 55th Annual Report of the Executive Committee of The Hartford Public Library (June 1, 1893) with the 88th Annual Report of the Directors of The Hartford Public Library (June 1, 1926).
From the moment Hewins stepped on Hartford soil, she identified herself with the community. She became a member of civic and history organizations, joined and initiated art, drama and nature clubs, and always paid particular attention to Hartford’s young. To view Hewins' 1892 library card, click here.
The oldest of nine children, Caroline was reading by the age of 4. She loved to read, to be read to and to read to others, especially her brother and sisters. Her love of reading is best described in her autobiographical memoir, A Mid-Century Child and Her Books (1926). It was this great joy, the keen appreciation of a good book, Hewins endeavored to share with every child in Hartford.
Hewins lived several years at the North Street Social Settlement (click here for map, North Street is C7), establishing a branch library there in 1895 and acting as its librarian one hour every evening. Immediately, children of all ages gathered at the settlement library, not only to borrow books but to listen to the wonderful stories Hewins would tell. Hewins devoted most of her spare time to the young of the neighborhood, following their activities in school, calling on their teachers, reading their essays, and visiting their homes.
At the downtown library, located then in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hewins served tea once a week for club workers, parents and teachers when they came to consult her. She formed the Education Club, the precursor to the Parent Teacher Association. She initiated a chapter of the Agassiz Association for nature study and would lead children on weekend nature walks in good weather and share nature stories in bad.
Although respected among her peers for her work as head librarian of a growing urban library, her efforts with children earned Hewins their highest regard. Alarmed at the limited number of appropriate titles for children in the Young Men’s Institute collection, she immediately began purchasing what she considered quality titles for young minds. Hewins compiled lists of suggested readings, the first, Suggestions of What to Read, was followed in 1882 by a much longer classified list, Books for the Young, the first edition of which is now a collector’s item.
A passionate advocate for a separate children’s room within the library, Hewins realized her dream on November 22, 1904 when the library opened its doors to a new Children’s Library. It was one of the first children's libraries in the country. The children's room took up residence on the bottom floor of the old Wadsworth house behind the Atheneum. Its previous occupants, the Hartford Club, had vacated the premises, freeing up three rooms for young readers in what became known as the Atheneum Annex.
Hewins believed this photograph (click here), appearing in a 1904 issue of The Hartford Courant showing 50 children and two adults in the reference room, convinced library board members to move quickly to create separate children’s quarters.
The Children’s Library was described by Hewins’ friend and fellow librarian Mary E.S. Root in her biographical essay on Hewins: “There were long windows flooding the rooms with sunlight, a fireplace with a Japanese screen, a cuckoo clock on the wall, and many pictures chosen by Miss Hewins and bought with money from appreciative friends… A corner case contained a magnificent collection of foreign pictures books, and there were dolls in costume from many lands. There was a case of mounted birds.”
In 1907, Sarah Eddy was hired as a full time children’s librarian but Hewins continued to oversee storytelling and reading club work. She coached plays and often wrote them. There was a chest full of costumes to be worn by the children in countless parades held on the lawn. On May Day, there was a May Pole Dance, as in Hewins' own childhood.
Even while on vacation this “First Lady of the Library” had her mind on the boys and girls of the city. In 1913, Hewins took the first of many trips abroad and wrote letters back to them extensively describing her travels. Letters from these trips are compiled in A Traveler’s Letters to Boys and Girls (1923).
When the new Children’s Library opened in 1904, Hewins initiated an annual doll party and special story hour on New Year’s Day, fashioned after the Japanese custom, hina matsuri, or doll festival. It is likely Hartford’s doll party tradition continued annually until the Children’s Library moved back into the Wadsworth Atheneum. With that move, the Children's Library became once again short on space and there was no room for this delightful annual tradition. The Children's Library, formerly located in what was known as both the Daniel Wadsworth home and as the Atheneum Annex, was demolished in the 1930s and the Wadsworth Atheneum's Avery Memorial was built in its place.
Caroline Hewins was granted an honorary Masters of Arts degree in 1911 by Trinity College. In awarding the degree, President Flavel S. Luther (1904-1919) lifted his cap and said: “Hail, first daughter of Trinity.”
Following her death in November 1926, the Library Journal wrote: “Caroline M. Hewins was one of the beloved in the library profession. She 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 Caroline M. Hewins Scholarship Fund was established at Hartford Public Library in 1926 as a tribute to one of the great pioneers in American librarianship and in special recognition of her creative work for children throughout the country. The Caroline M. Hewins Lectureship, an annual presentation at the New England Library Association Meeting, was established by Frederic Melcher in her honor in 1946. At the seventy-fifth anniversary of the American Library Association in 1951, Caroline Hewins was named to the Library Hall of Fame. Hartford’s “First Lady of the Library” was named to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995.
Children’s Librarian Helen Canfield revived the Hewins’ doll party tradition in 1957 with a story hour hosted by the 50 dolls bequeathed to the library by Hewins in 1926. The Caroline Maria Hewins Doll Collection, augmented over the years by gifts of dolls to the library, is one of Hartford History Center's most engaging holdings.
Hartford History Center's Caroline Hewins Collection includes:
Biography
Clippings
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame
Ephemera
Hewins Scholarship
Hartford Social Settlement
Hewins – Hartford in the Literary World
Hewins – How Library Work with Children Has Grown in Hartford and Connecticut
Hewins – Letter, July 19, 1897
Hewins – Yearly report on Boys and Girls Reading, 1882
Obituary
One for the Books – Aetna Tribute
Papers about Caroline Marie Hewins
Root, Mary E.S., including “A Valiant Life – A Triumphant Death”
For books on and by Caroline Hewins available at Hartford Public Library, search the library’s online catalog.
Caroline M. Hewins’ collection of more than 1,000 children books was given to the Connecticut Historical Society following her death.