Caroline Hewins: Opening the world of libraries to children
(Hartford Public Library Children's Room,Chairvolotti 2020)
(Hartford Public Library Children's Room,Chairvolotti 2020)
Wadsworth Athenauem, (Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library, Hartford CT)
In the 1800's, libraries were only for people who could afford them. The Young Men's Institute of Hartford, Connecticut, cost $3 a year to check out one book at a time, and $5 a year to check out two books at a time; this is $70.36 and $117.26 in today's money. Most people were not willing or able to subscribe to the library. In 1875, there were only 500 subscribers.
If libraries had children's books, they were usually gory, violent, or inappropriate, shelved alongside the adult books. Without indication of what was a children's book, kids often read things they shouldn't have.
When Miss Hewins started working at the Young Men's Institute (the library's name at the time) in 1875, children were asking for cheap dime novels and violent books. "Stories of the present day in which children die, are cruelly treated, or offer advice to their fathers and mothers, and take charge of the finances and love affairs of their elders, are not good reading for boys and girls in happy homes..."(Hewins, Books for Boys and Girls, 1915).
Caroline wanted children to read good books. She made a special section of the library for children, invited children to come to the library, and offered a special low subscription price for youth. Then on September 15, 1892, the Hartford Library became a free library for all the residents of the city. She set aside books for children, and made a section for them. She started clubs, nature walks, and summer reading programs. She put letters in the newspaper, announcing to children that they were having a special speaker, or what events were going on. She directed plays, held book discussions, and found good books for kids to read. Every summer, she would pick themes, like European history, ocean creatures, great explorers, etc. She would gather books together, and advertise it in the Hartford Courant.
(The Hartford Courant , Jul 8, 1918, p.14).
Nowadays, most everyone agrees about the importance of reading to children, and having youth read. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stresses the importance of reading to children, even very young children. For more information, please watch the video below.
Children's rooms have caught on, and you can now find them at almost every library. Picture - Simsbury Public Library (Chairvolotti 2020)
Interview with Stephanie Prato, Simsbury Library (Chairvolotti 2020).
"The influence of books that I read over and over between the ages of five and fifteen has been so great upon my later life, its tastes and pursuits, that in the last twenty years I have collected copies of as many of them as possible for a standard of comparisons with what children read now."
~ Caroline Hewins, A Mid Century Child and Her Books