Hawkinson, Ella A. (1896-1954). Papers, 1948-1956.

Ella Amelia Hawkinson was born on November 9, 1896, in Harris, Minnesota. She received her formal education at State Teachers College (Duluth, Minnesota), University of Minnesota (B.A. and M.A., 1926), and her Ph.D. in 1941 from American University in Washington, D.C. Her subject was titled "Selected Difficulties of Social Studies Teachers in Secondary Schools," and it was published in 1949. She also attended Wayne University at some time and the University of Southern California during the summer of 1949.

Her publications centered on school museums and community cooperation, how to use local history, and the Clay County Museum in Clay County, Minnesota.

Her professional career included teaching at Norwood and Glencoe High School from 1913-1917; Teachers College in Duluth, Minnesota, from 1918-1919; Teachers College in Moorhead, Minnesota, as a professor of education and social studies from 1920-1948; the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, as a workshop co-director and consultant during the summer of 1945; the University of Minnesota as a professor of social studies education during the summer of 1948; a graduate student advisor at the University of Kansas during the summer of 1949; teacher of summer workshops at Stanford University; and professor of history and head of the history and political science departments at Hope College from 1948-1952. She also served as the vice-president of the Michigan Council for UNESCO from 1951-1952 and received a Fulbright lectureship to Norway in 1952.

Hawkinson left Hope College in the fall of 1953 due to ill health and passed away in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 27, 1954.