Librarian.
Born at Fletcher, Kent County, Ontario on 20 December 1879, daughter of Scottish immigrants Elizabeth Farquharson (1845-1919) and Francis Beattie “Frank” Stewart (1840-1914), sister of David Alexander Stewart and Isabel Maitland Stewart, she trained as a teacher at the Central Normal School (c1908).
After a short period as a schoolteacher in Manitoba, she began working as a librarian at the New York Public Library (1909-1910) and Victoria (British Columbia) Public Library (1911-1924), interrupted by medical service in London (England) and France during the First World War. She received BSc (1926), AM (1927), and PhD (1928) degrees from Columbia University.
Through the 1930s, she continued in library work in British Columbia and served as President of the British Columbia Library Association (1932). In the 1940s, she was chosen by the Rockerfeller Foundation to establish libraries in Trinidad and Tobago. She retired in 1946. Nearing the age of 90, when asked if she used a power mower to cut her lawn, she responded “I supply the power”.
She died unmarried at Vancouver, British Columbia on 5 April 1971 and was cremated.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Death registration [Helen Gordon Stewart], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Helen Gordon Stewart (1879-1971), Canadian Library History Blog, 2 December 2022.
We thank Emma Prescott for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 9 June 2026
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