The Vivian D. and John H. Hewitt Collection

John Hamilton Hewitt Jr. and Vivian Davidson Hewitt married in December 1949 and collected art from the African Diaspora. Their collection primarily contains African American and Haitian art exhibited throughout the United States.

Vivian Ann Davidson Hewitt was born on February 17, 1920 in New Castle, Pennsylvania. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Geneva College in 1943 and a M.S. degree in library science from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1944. Vivian Hewitt worked as a librarian in Pittsburg and Atlanta, Georgia. From 1963 to 1983, she was the chief librarian at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Vivian was the first African American president of the Special Libraries Association (1978-1979).

John Hamilton Hewitt Jr. was born in 1924 in New York City, New York. He attended Harvard College and New York University where he obtained his Master’s degree in 1949. Hewitt was an instructor for the Department of English and co-chairman for the Division of Humanities at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Hewitt also held the post of reporter for the New York Amsterdam News; later on he became a medical writer for the Medical Tribune, and served as an editor for both Hospital Practice and Emergency Medicine.

Hewitt wrote various articles in publications such as the New York History, the Massachusetts Review, Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, and the International Review of African American Art. He was a member of the American Medical Writers Association. John Hewitt passed away on February 25, 2000.