Oxford University

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Education Jeanette Winterson
JW attended Accrington Girls' Grammar School, then Accrington College of Further Education. Although she first failed the Oxford University entrance exams, she travelled to meet with the authorities and persuaded them to give her a...
Education Iris Murdoch
At the same time as applying for her place at Newnham, she kept her options open by applying for a lectureship at Sheffield University and a place at Vassar in New York State, as...
Education Ethel M. Arnold
The school, which was populated by the daughters of Oxford dons who had recently been allowed to marry and have families, had a feminist atmosphere. The students debated topics like rational dress and women’s education...
Education J. K. Rowling
She sat the entrance exams for admission to Oxford , and got as far as being placed on a waiting list. She was rejected after the A-level results came through (although she got two A's...
Education Naomi Mitchison
Naomi Haldane, aged sixteen (later NM ), enrolled as an Oxfordhome student in what later became St Anne's College.
Mitchison, Naomi. All Change Here: Girlhood and Marriage. Bodley Head, 1975.
110-1
Education John Donne
He was admitted while very young to Oxford University (where he did not, however, take his degree) and later to Lincoln's Inn . He was a law student when he wrote most of his love-poetry...
Education Ray Strachey
Ray Costelloe (later RS ) became the first woman to attend lectures on electrical engineering at Oxford .
Strachey, Barbara. Remarkable Relations: The Story of the Pearsall Smith Women. Universe Books, 1980.
249-50
Education Richard Francis Burton
He left Oxford without taking a degree.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa, editors. The Encyclopedia of the Victorian World. Henry Holt and Company, 1996.
Education Abraham Cowley
He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge . He later studied at Oxford University for a degree in medicine.
Johnson, Samuel. The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. C. Bathurst, J. Buckland, W. Strahan, et. al., 1781, 4 vols., http://SpCol PR 553 J67 1781.
1: 3-6,11
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Among writing in many genres, his pastorals and odes proved particularly...
Education Dorothy L. Sayers
DLS 's parents sent her to Godolphin school (in Salisbury, Wiltshire) in preparation for Oxford .
Reynolds, Barbara. Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul. Hodder and Stoughton, 1993.
27, 28, 43
Education Marina Warner
MW received an Oxford BA in Modern Languages (French and Italian) from Lady Margaret Hall ; following this she received her MA as well.
Moseley, Merritt, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 194. Gale Research, 1998.
194: 281
Education Sally Purcell
SP received her Oxford BA Honours in Medieval and Modern French after her three years at Lady Margaret Hall .
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
Jay, Peter, and Sally Purcell. “Foreword and Note on the Text”. Collected Poems, edited by Peter Jay and Peter Jay, Anvil Press Poetry, 2002, pp. 19-24.
19
Education Kathleen Nott
KN 's class of degree in her BA in PPE from Oxford University was announced: she was awarded a fourth-class BA (a class which was popularly believed to reflect not lack of ability but rather...
Education Dorothy L. Sayers
She earned first-class Honours, though as a woman she was not yet allowed to take a degree. While at Oxford she met Vera Brittain , who liked her on sight. She dressed flamboyantly and eccentrically...
Education Adrienne Rich
AR won a Guggenheim fellowship, which enabled her to study at Oxford and travel through Italy.
Commire, Anne, and Deborah Klezmer, editors. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Yorkin Publications, 1999–2002, 17 vols.
13: 249

Timeline

March 1885: The annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race...

Building item

March 1885

The annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race was completely overshadowed by the sensational antics of an American advertising company.
Hindley, Diana, and Geoffrey Hindley. Advertising in Victorian England 1837-1901. Wayland, 1972.
81-2

1889: Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman law student...

Building item

1889

Cornelia Sorabji , the first woman law student at a British university, enrolled at Somerville College , Oxford .
Midgley, Clare. “Ethnicity, ‘Race’ and Empire”. Women’s History: Britain, 1850-1945, edited by June Purvis, St Martin’s Press, 1995, pp. 247-76.
260

1893: Mary Lucy Pendered dedicated her novel of...

Women writers item

1893

Mary Lucy Pendered dedicated her novel of two friends and their eventual disappointment with their husbands, Dust and Laurels: A Study in Nineteenth Century Womanhood, To that Hybrid Complication, the Woman of To-day.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

12 October 1897: Nearly four years after the appearance of...

Writing climate item

12 October 1897

Nearly four years after the appearance of the first fascicle (A-ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary, a great dinner was held at Queen's College, Oxford , for its volunteer readers, including women.
Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman. HarperCollins, 1998.
163-4, 147

26 March 1902: Cecil Rhodes died, leaving a trust producing...

Building item

26 March 1902

Cecil Rhodes died, leaving a trust producing nearly £52,000 per annum to fund fifty-two (at first) graduate scholarships each year to Oxford . They were not, under the terms of his will, open to women...

1904: Sir Walter Raleigh, author of the literary...

Writing climate item

1904

Sir Walter Raleigh , author of the literary history The English Novel, 1894, moved from Glasgow to become the first Professor of English Literature at Oxford .
Warner, William Beatty. Licensing Entertainment: The Elevation of Novel Reading in Britain, 1684-1750. University of California Press, 1998.
29

1912: Lilian Baylis began her tenure as manager...

Building item

1912

Lilian Baylis began her tenure as manager of the Old Vic Theatre in London, which she converted from a music hall into a respected Shakespearian theatre.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
347
Hartnoll, Phyllis, editor. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 1983.
64, 608

1915: Principals of the women's colleges of Oxford...

Building item

1915

Principals of the women's colleges of Oxford University agreed to allow the formation of mixed societies.
Howarth, Janet. “Women”. The History of the University of Oxford: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 345-76.
361

1917: Oxford University opened its medical examinations...

Building item

1917

Oxford University opened its medical examinations to women.
Howarth, Janet. “Women”. The History of the University of Oxford: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 345-76.
348
Brittain, Vera. The Women at Oxford. George G. Harrap, 1960.
149

1918: Oxford University opened its postgraduate...

Building item

1918

Oxford University opened its postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law examination to women; this was one of the changes introduced because the First World War shifted opinion towards assimilation of women in educational institutions.
Howarth, Janet. “Women”. The History of the University of Oxford: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 345-76.
349

17 February 1920: Oxford University admitted women as full...

Building item

17 February 1920

Oxford University admitted women as full members.
Brittain, Vera. The Women at Oxford. George G. Harrap, 1960.
152
Winter, J. M. “Oxford and the First World War”. The History of the University of Oxford Vol. VIII: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 3-26.
14

7 October 1920: At the beginning of Oxford University's academic...

Building item

7 October 1920

At the beginning of Oxford University 's academic year, the women's statute came into effect: women were finally eligible to become Senior Members of the University.
Brittain, Vera. The Women at Oxford. George G. Harrap, 1960.
152
Winter, J. M. “Oxford and the First World War”. The History of the University of Oxford Vol. VIII: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 3-26.
14
Reeves, Marjorie. St. Anne’s College, Oxford. St Anne’s College, 1979.
10 and n4

14 October 1920: A week after the university statutes had...

National or international item

14 October 1920

A week after the university statutes had finally made women eligible for degrees, women graduates of Oxford gathered for the belated award of degrees which they had earned, most of them, years before.

11 March 1921: Oxford University awarded its first honorary...

Building item

11 March 1921

Oxford University awarded its first honorary degree to a woman, Queen Mary .
Howarth, Janet. “Women”. The History of the University of Oxford: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 345-76.
360
Brittain, Vera. The Women at Oxford. George G. Harrap, 1960.
157

June 1925: Annie Jump Cannon, distinguished US astronomer,...

Building item

June 1925

Annie Jump Cannon , distinguished US astronomer, became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University .
Powell, Jennifer H. “Reaching for the Stars”. The Harvard University Gazette, 19 Mar. 1998.

Texts

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