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Orlov-Rubinov,
Ann
Orne, Caroline Frances
Ann
Orlov-Rubinov b. Dec. 23, 1925, in Brookline, MA, d. Jan. 5,
2007, in Tucson, AZ
Editor, activist
Born as Betty Ann, Ann Orlov was the daughter
of Meyer and Beverley Orlov in Brookline, MA. She attended Bryn Mawr College,
then came to Cambridge in the 1950s to do graduate work in history at Harvard
University. During this period, she became active in civil rights in Cambridge
and was a founder of the Boston chapter of the Episcopal Society for Cultural
and Racial Unity. She went to Selma, AL, to march with Martin Luther King, Jr..
Her home in Cambridge became a center for educational and welfare reform. From
1968 to 1975, she left graduate work to become an editor for behavioral studies
at the Harvard University Press. In 1974 she and Stephan Thernstrom developed
the idea of creating the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups
(1980), of which she became managing editor. She started her own press,
Langdon Press, after leaving Harvard University Press, and worked as a free-lance
author and consultant.
In 1980, she moved to Stowe, VT, and opened a
bed and breakfast. Soon after, she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor that
left her with a slight limp. There in Vermont, she worked with the Episcopal
church and decided to pursue a theological degree, which she began in Vermont
and completed at the Jesuit Faculty of Theology at Regis College in Toronto;
she received her M. Div. there in 1996. In 2002, she reconnected with an old
boyfriend from her adolescence, Dr. Merrill Rubinov; they married soon after.
The couple moved to Tucson, AZ. Dr. Rubinov died there four years later, seven
months before Orlov’s own death.
References: “Ann Orlov Rubinov,” obituary news
article by Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe January 25, 2007; Obituary,
Cambridge Chronicle (under Betty A. Rubinov) January 22, 20071-22-07
Caroline
Frances Orne (b. September 5, 1818, in Cambridge, d. February
7, 1905)
Poet, author, first Cambridge librarian
Caroline Frances Orne was the daughter of John
Gerry Orne and his wife, Ann (Stone). She was brought up in Cambridge and educated
in the Cambridge public schools and at a private school in Boston, Bailey’s
High School for Young Ladies. She was a childhood friend of the poet James Russell
Lowell, which may have inspired her to write poetry herself. In her twenties
she began to publish children’s stories and poetry, some of which had
a national circulation. Lucy's Party and Other Tales (1842) was intended
for children; Sweet Auburn and Mount Auburn with Other Poems (1844)
described the grounds of Mount Auburn both before and after it became a cemetery.
Her book of poetry, Morning Songs of American Freedom (1876), included
patriotic poems, a number of which celebrated the courage of sea captains, from
whom her father was descended. Longfellow thought well enough of her work to
include one of her poems in his anthology, Poems of Places (1879).
In 1858, the city of Cambridge purchased the Athenaeum
(founded by Edmund Dana as a private library) and renamed it the Dana Library—Caroline
Orne became its first librarian. She built up the holdings from 1,400 books
to 7,000, and expanded its hours of operation. The library soon required more
space, and in 1866, it was relocated to the old Masonic hall at the corner of
Massachusetts Avenue and Temple Street. Orne remained as librarian until 1874,
when she retired. She was succeeded by another woman librarian, Almira L. Hayward,
who remained for the next twenty-two years. In 1879, the library was renamed
as the Cambridge Public Library.
Towards the end of her life, Orne became interested
in her family history. She joined the Hannah Winthrop Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution and published a study of her mother’s family,
the Stone family, from the early 1630s, titled A Pioneer in New England
(1887, reprinted 1930). When the organization published An Historic Guide
to Cambridge in 1907, it included an account of her publications. Orne
lived in her family home at 107 Auburn Street until her death in 1905. She is
buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery with the rest of her family.
References: "Friend of Longfellow: Playmate of Lowell,"
obituary of Caroline F. Orne. Cambridge Chronicle February 11, 1905.
Orne family biographies and landmark report for Orne's home at 107 Auburn Street,
Cambridge Historical Commission. Who’s Who in America (1905)
Cambridge
Women's Heritage Project
March 27, 2007