Harriett Pullman, daughter of George and Harriet (Hattie) Pullman, was born in Chicago in 1869. Educated both at home and in Europe, she became fluent in French and German. She graduated in 1889 from Miss Brown’s Fifth Avenue School in New York City.

In 1892, she married San Franciscan Francis Carolan, and they established their home in Burlingame, CA. Harriett’s father died in 1897, making her an heiress to his railway car fortune. Harriett established a second home in Paris around 1900, having long been fascinated with France’s artistic heritage. During World War I, she became active in the American Friends of France, an organization advocating U.S. involvement in the war. She served as Director of the Fine Arts Department of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Harriett, a bibliophile, was the only American member of “Les Amis du Livre Moderne” in Paris. She planned her splendid Carolands Library to share her passion for books and learning.

Music and drama were Harriett’s other passions. In her early years she studied singing, and in California she hosted a French opera singer as a long-term houseguest. In the 1930s she helped found the Berkshire Music Festival. Harriett enjoyed portraying “The Tragic Muse” at the Tableaux Vivants, and she read poetry aloud to enthusiastic audiences. Her closest friend of almost 40 years was one of the most famous stage actresses of the day, Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Harriett was admired for her distinctive and beautiful clothing. She collected and preserved many examples made by the finest Parisian couturiers of her day.

In 1923, Francis Carolan died in San Francisco. Harriett married Colonel Arthur Schermerhorn in New York in 1925. The couple occupied Carolands for brief periods over the following two years. In 1929, the Schermerhorn’s purchased Spring Lawn, a large estate in Lenox, MA and offered Carolands for sale. Arthur died in 1933, leaving Harriett a widow for the second time. When she sold Carolands in 1945, she was 76 years old. Harriett died in October 1956 having spent the last years of her life in the quiet luxury of her duplex apartment at 740 Park Avenue in New York City. Having no children of her own, she left most of her possessions to her late sister’s children and a fortune to charities.

Carolands may stand as Harriett’s most enduring legacy.