Edwina Whitney

Edwina Maud Whitney (February 26, 1868 – September 3, 1970) was an American librarian and educator who served as one of the earliest librarians at the Connecticut Agricultural College (later the University of Connecticut) from 1900 to 1934. She also served as a German instructor from 1901 to 1926 and an assistant professor of German from 1926 to 1934. In 1881, Storrs donated the buildings and fifty acres of land to the State of Connecticut to found Storrs Agricultural College. Whitney Hall thus became the UConn's first campus building.

Edwina Whitney was born in the Whitney homestead on Route 195 in Storrs, Connecticut, on February 26, 1868. Her father died a few months before she was born, leaving her mother to run the orphanage and raise their daughter. Edwina attended grade school in Storrs alongside future Connecticut governor Wilbur Lucius Cross. She attended Middletown High School and Northfield Seminary and earned a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Oberlin College in 1894. In 1900, she completed a library science course at Amherst College, studying under William I. Fletcher. She later attended summer courses at Columbia University. It lacked space, electricity, and a proper collection development budget, though the situation improved under presidents Charles L. Beach and George A. Works.

On March 21, 1934, college president Charles C. McCracken asked her to retire, which she did effective July 1. She received numerous accolades at retirement. The faculty passed resolutions celebrating her thirty-four years of service, and the college granted her the status of emeritus librarian and the honorary degree of Master of Letters—the only honorary degree UConn awarded to staff during the first century of the institution's existence. The May 29, 1934 issue of the Connecticut Campus was dedicated to her. With thirty-four years of service, she was the longest-serving head librarian in the institution's history (the runner-up, John P. McDonald, served twenty years).

Her hundredth birthday party in 1968 was attended by UConn president Homer D. Babbidge and provost emeritus Albert E. Waugh, who presented her with a plaque and a cake with 100 candles. of which she was a lifelong congregant and historian. Whitney Hall, named after her father, was the first major campus building. It was condemned in 1928 and demolished in 1932.