With Jennifer Hamlin Church

The children’s book, Miss Rumphius, was inspired by the real life of Hilda Edwards Hamlin, who spread lupine seeds along the roads near her summer home in Maine.

A native of England, Hilda’s connection to Northampton began when she moved here as a 15-year-old to live with her uncle, Harry Gardiner, a Smith College philosopher.  After graduating from Smith College in 1912, she married and moved away. In 1929, after her uncle’s death and her own divorce, she returned to Northampton. For the rest of her life, Hilda split her time between Northampton and the Maine summer home.

​In this presentation, Hilda’s granddaughter, Jennifer Hamlin Church, will share glimpses of Northampton history gathered from the letters and diaries written by her grandmother and her great granduncle.