Caroline Henderson Griffiths (November 26, 1861 – August 13, 1937) was an American diplomat's wife and philanthropist. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, she organized book and equipment donations for children's libraries in Belgium and France.

Early life

Caroline Henderson was born in Covington, Indiana, and raised in Lafayette, the daughter of Albert Henderson and Lorana Richmond Henderson. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1880, as one of the first women to graduate from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

. Her older brother

Charles Richmond Henderson Charles Richmond Henderson (1848–1915) was an American Baptist minister and sociologist. After being a pastor for nearly 20 years in Terre Haute and Detroit, he took an appointment as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Ch ...

was a sociology professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

; her older sister Julia Henderson Levering wrote a book on Indiana history.

Career

Henderson wrote a handbook on wood carving, published in 1887. Griffiths was an officer of the Indiana Soldiers' Aid Society in 1898. In Indianapolis, she supported the Flower Mission Home for Incurables, a hospital she helped establish in 1903. In 1918 she edited ''The Greater Patriotism,'' a collection of her late husband's speeches. After World War I, Griffiths headed the American Book Committee on Children's Libraries, organized to deliver children's books and library furniture to Belgian and French communities recovering from the war. Griffiths is credited with bringing the first children's libraries and reading rooms in Paris and Brussels. The programs also provided training for children's librarians; the Paris site counted writer

Claire Huchet Bishop Claire Huchet Bishop (30 December 1898 – 13 March 1993) was a Swiss children's writer and librarian. She wrote two Newbery Medal runners-up, ''Pancakes-Paris'' (1947) and ''All Alone (Claire Huchet Bishop novel), All Alone'' (1953), and she w ...

among its first librarians. "In establishing children's libraries and reading rooms in Belgium and France," she explained, "we are only paying a little on a very large debt which America owes to Europe for the delightful hours the children in every generation have received from the great storytellers in Europe."

Personal life

Henderson married lawyer and diplomat John Lewis Griffiths in 1889. She was widowed when Griffiths died in London in 1914. Their home in Indianapolis is now known as the Kemper House, and houses the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana.Pierson-Griffiths House / Kemper House
1986; at Indiana Memory. She died in New York in 1937, aged 75 years. Her grave is in Green-Wood Cemetery in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, Caroline Henderson 1861 births 1937 deaths American women in World War I American philanthropists People from Covington, Indiana Purdue University alumni Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery People from Lafayette, Indiana American women non-fiction writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 19th-century American women writers People from Indianapolis