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Hewes (Dorothy) Papers
MS-0511
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & University Archives
Title: Dorothy Hewes Papers
Creator:
Hewes, Dorothy W.
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0511
Physical Description:
4.60 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1932-2010
Language of Material:
English
.
The papers of Dorothy Hewes are arranged into three series:
Biographical Materials,
Professional Development Activities, and
San Diego State University Family Studies and Consumer Sciences. The materials are mostly administrative documents involving various philanthropic activities, teaching materials, and various
writings.
Series I: Biographical Materials
The Biographical Materials series contains awards and various writings written by Dorothy Hewes. Included is the draft of
her dissertation,
W.N. Hailman - Defender of Froebel.
Series II: Professional Development Activities
The files in the Professional Development Activities series are administrative documents from the organizations umbrelled
under the National Association for the Education of Young Children which includes the California and San Diego regional chapters.
The series also contains two subseries: San Diego Association for the Education of Young Children and San Diego Employees'
Child Care Association. Hewes worked closely with the County of San Diego to establish a child care center for county workers
in the 1980s. The files consist of meeting minutes, fliers, photographs, and newsletters.
Series III: San Diego State University Family Studies and Consumer Sciences
This series encompasses Dorothy Hewes' teaching career and administrative roles. It is arranged in three subseries: Child
Development Laboratory, Department materials, and Teaching materials. Hewes had a pivotal role in the development and maturity
of the Department of Family Studies and Consumer Sciences. The original department was part of Home Economics. The series
contains two scrapbooks documenting events in the 1950s-1960s when the school was called San Diego State College. She helped
established the Child Development Laboratory, as part of early childhood curriculum and was on the board of several department
committees. The materials are both administrative and educational in nature. The Teaching Materials subseries show the evolution
of several courses within the department.
I. Biographical Materials
II. Professional Development Activities
1. San Diego Association for the Education of Young Children
2. San Diego County Employees' Child Care Association
III. San Diego State University Family Studies and Consumer Sciences
1. Child Development Laboratory
2. Department materials
3. Teaching Materials
This collection is open for research.
The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with
the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections
is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Requests for permission to publish must be
submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
2008-003; 2008-017
Identification of item, folder title, box number, Dorothy Hewes Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, San Diego
State University Library.
Dr. Dorothy W. Hewes, Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University in the Family Studies and Consumer Sciences department
was a prolific early childhood educator, leader, and historian during the last half of the 20th century. She was the co-author
of one of the first preschool administration textbooks and was known as the "Mother of the History of Early Childhood Education."
Born in 1922 in Illinois, Dr. Hewes' early education was based on Friedrich Froebel's principles of individuality. Later she
would join her mother and grandmother in utilizing Froebel's teachings in early childhood clinics and as a professor. Dr.
Hewes started her writing accomplishments with her review of
The Bobbsey Twins, published in 1930 when she was just eight years old. During World War II in March 1943, Dr. Hewes received her Bachelor's
degree in Institution Management from the College of Home Economics at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa. After graduating
she joined the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, became a mess sergeant, and learned to work within a highly regimented system.
After World War II, utilizing the GI Bill, she began studying child development at the University of California at Berkley,
eventually earning a MBA degree in marketing and a Ph.D. degree in Early Childhood Education and History of Education from
Union Graduate School, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Her doctoral dissertation illustrated William Hailmann, an educator who furthered
Froebel's theories.
Two years into her studies, Dr. Hewes attended the 1947 Annual Conference of the National Association for Nursery Education
that was later known as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Thereafter, she became involved
with the NAEYC on the local, state, and national levels, including serving on both the NAEYC Governing Board and the California
AEYC Board. In California she was the state AEYC legislative chair and became the Historian of the San Diego AEYC. In 1972
she founded the NAEYC Annual Conference History Seminar and moderated its annual meetings for 29 years until 2001. She was
also a representative at the International Organization for Early Childhood Education and supported the Convention on the
Rights of the Child.
During this time of service in the 1950s and 1960s, Dr. Hewes taught in Southern Californian schools and childcare centers.
Specifically, in 1952 she co-founded Bakersfield Play Center because she wanted her son to have a progressive nursery school.
Due to the lack of training for administrators in the field, Dr. Hewes co-authored with Barbara Hartman,
Early Childhood Education: A Workbook for Administrators, which was published in 1972. Seven years later in 1979, she also published
Administration, Making Programs Work for Children and Families and 25 years after that in 2004, drawing on a lifetime of experience, she published
An Administrator's Guidebook to Early Care and Education Programs.
Dr. Hewes became a professor in the Department of Child and Family Development (now Family Studies and Consumer Sciences)
at San Diego State University in 1974, a position she held for 18 years until 1992, after which she became a Professor Emeritus.
The department was originally part of the Home Economics course track at SDSU, but as women and caretakers role's changed
through the 1970s, Dr. Hewes modeled the curriculum to better represent the development of parenting skills. Beginning in
1985, she served as the faculty adviser to the on-campus Children's Center until she retired in 2011. Hewes taught innovative
courses in early childhood education, parenting skills, and domesticity. She was also extremely involved with the San Diego
County Employee's Child Care Center which she helped found in 1981. She was deeply concerned about providing adequate child
care and education for County working parents.
Over the years her published writings became increasingly concerning the historical perspective, including:
The Froebelian Kindergarten as an International Movement (1980),
Pestalozzi: Foster Father of Early Childhood Education (1992),
NAEYC's First Half Century 1926-1976 (1996), and
It's the Camaraderie: A History of Parent Cooperative Preschools (1998). Her dissertation,
W.N. Hailmann: Defender of Froebel, also was published in 2001. In 2008, the International Froebel Society honored Dr. Hewes with their Lifetime Achievement
Award for being "an inspiration to countless students, teachers and scholars," and for having "enhanced the learning of generations
of young children."
On January 30, 2013, Dr. Hewes died at the age of 90 years. In her honor, a Dorothy Hewes Graduate Student Scholarship Fund
was established through the San Diego AEYC.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Hewes, Dorothy W.