Hewins, Caroline Maria

Hewins, Caroline Maria

(1846–1926) children's librarian; born in Roxbury, Mass. After graduating from the Normal School of Boston (1866), she worked as a librarian at the Young Men's Institute in Hartford and established a small branch library at Hartford's North Street Settlement, where she lived among the poor for 12 years. During her 50-year tenure as librarian of the Hartford (Conn.) Public Library she advanced cooperation between the Library and local public schools. She founded the Education Association, a forerunnner of the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.