Caroline Augusta Blanchard

Artist Unknown
Caroline Augusta Blanchard
Late 19th/early 20th century
Pastel, watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper

Caroline Augusta Blanchard (1850-1917) was the first librarian of Tufts Library, where she worked from 1879 to 1906. In 1930, which marked the 50th anniversary of Tufts Library, Blanchard’s youngest sister Alice Bates Blanchard wrote a remembrance in a booklet entitled An Untrained Librarian: Caroline Augusta Blanchard, 1850-1917. The remembrance notes that Blanchard was commended by the Massachusetts Library Commissioners for the “unusually large circulation [of books] in proportion to the size of the town.” Miss Blanchard’s sister fondly recalled that “No description of her would seem adequate, to one who knew her, without some mention of her arresting smile, which lighted up her whole face, revealing a spirit of such frank goodwill toward mankind as to testify to a nature without envy, false pride, or petty jealousy.”

Sources

An Untrained Librarian: Caroline Augusta Blanchard, 1850-1917. 1930. Box 3, Folder 3. WTC011 Tufts Library Records. Weymouth Public Libraries, Weymouth, MA.