Catalogue description Autograph Letter Collection: Scholars & Learned Ladies

The collection contains correspondence related to the theme 'Scholars and Learned Ladies'. Letter from Anna Gurney to Sir William Hooker, c. 1850. Correspondence dealing with the election of Miss Mary A Blagg as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Extract from Professor Turner's introduction to Miss Blagg's 'Collated List of Lunar Formations'. Letters from Professor Turner. Letter from Frank Dyson. A short account of the life and work of Mary Blagg produced by her nieces, 1968. Correspondence in 1962 about the late Miss Pernel Strachey's typescript edition of the Emmanuel College manuscript. Admission of women Fellows to the Royal Society. Correspondence between Royal Society, Society for Women's Service, Mrs Hutton and Miss P Strachey, 1954. Correspondence between Lucy Norton, John Carter and Joan Bennett about some George Eliot letters and an article on them by Joan Bennett, 1968. Copy of a letter from Mrs Baines (Bedford College) to Miss Pernel Strachey about a tapestry for Newnham College, 1945. Letter from Myra Curtis (Newnham) to Pernel Strachey, 1945. Letter from Hertha Ayrton to Dr Gorthon, 1911. Autograph signatures of Margaret McNair Stokes, Mrs Agnata Frances Butle, Jane Ellen Harrison.

A copy of this archive is available on microfilm held at The Women's Library.

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit. Available on microfiche only.

This collection consists of letters taken from various sources and filed individually in ring binders. The original source of the item (often from archive collections) is not generally indicated.

• British Federation of University Women, 190 -c 2005
• Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-c.1919
• Six Point Group, 1921-1983, gender equality pressure group
• Strachey, Joan Pernel, 1876-1951, college head and French scholar
• Ayrton, Phoebe Sarah Hertha, 1854-1923, née Marks, electrical engineer and suffragist
• Blagg, Mary Adela, 1858-1944, astronomer
• Gurney, Anna, 1795-1857, Anglo-Saxon scholar
• Strachey, Philippa, 1872-1968, feminist activist and organiser
• Women teachers

Biographies:

Phoebe Sarah Ayrton (1854-1923) - known as Hertha - was born in 1854 to Levi Marks, a clockmaker and jeweller, and Alice Theresa Moss. She was educated privately at Dame School in Camden, which was run by her aunt, Marion Hartog. She began her career working as a governess and then as a mathematics teacher between 1870 and 1876. In 1876, Hertha gained a scholarship to Girton, where she gained a third-class honours in mathematics. During her time at Girton, Hertha produced her first invention. It was a sphygmograph, which monitored the human pulse. In 1884, Hertha started studying at Finsbury Technical College under WE Ayrton, Professor of Applied Physics. They married a year later in 1885. Hertha carried on with her husband's experiments during his absence in America and soon became a leading expert. She became the first female member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1899. In 1901 Hertha was conducting research into the movement of water and discovered the cause of sand ripples on the shore. In 1902 Hertha was nominated for fellowship of the Royal Society. Her nomination was rejected as the council cited it had no power to elect a woman. In 1906, Hertha joined the Women's Social & Political Union, the same year in which she was finally allowed to give lectures at the Royal Society. Her suffrage activities continued with her participating in the 'Mud March' in 1907 and being present at the militant suffrage demonstration on 'Black Friday' in 1910. In 1914, Hertha joined with the United Suffragists, becoming a vice president. In 1915, Hertha Ayrton invented the Ayrton fan, which was a hand fan to be used in the trenches to dispel gas. She also invented an improved searchlight and adapted the fan for use in mines, sewers and warships. She was a member of the following organisations: Women's Industrial League, International Federation of University Women, National Union of Scientific Workers, Six Point Group, British Federation of University Women, and the Labour Party. She died in 1923 from blood poisoning.

Mary Adela Blagg (1858-1944) was born in 1858 to John Charles Blagg, a solicitor, and France Caroline Foottit. Mary was sent to a finishing school in Kensington in 1875 where she studied algebra and German, the latter she employed when translating German poetry into English verse. In 1891 Mary Blagg became the branch secretary of the Girls' Friendly Society in Cheadle. She also worked as a Sunday school teacher. Mary Blagg was a keen chess player and wrote children's stories, four of which were published locally. Mary was also responsible for editing a manuscript magazine, entitled 'Literary links', a task she performed until her death. Her career as an astronomer started in 1904, when Mary, now aged forty-six, was introduced to Professor Turner of the Oxford Observatory. In 1907, Mary started working with Mr S A Saunder to assist the International Committee of the International Astronomical Union on the 'uniformity in nomenclature of lunar formations'. This work was finally completed in 1935, resulting in the publication of 'A Catalogue of Named Lunar Formations'. Her research work led to her writing papers for the Royal Astronomical Society, the most important of which was 'Suggested Substitute for Bode's Law', published in 1913. During the same year, Professor Turner put her name forward for election as a Fellow to the Royal Astronomical Society, a position which had not previously been open to women. Mary was actually elected in 1916. In recognition of her achievements in the field of astronomy, a crater on the moon was named in her honour. She died aged eighty-five.

Anna Gurney (1795-1857) was an Anglo-Saxon scholar who had studied both classical and modern languages. She anonymously published a limited edition of her work, entitled 'A literal translation of the Saxon Chronicle' in 1819. Anna Gurney was deeply religious and her sense of social responsibility resulted in her involvement in prison reform and establishing a branch of the anti-slavery movement in Norwich. In 1830 she co-founded the Belfry School at Overstrand in Kent with her cousin Sarah Buxton. In 1845 she became the first female member of the British Archaeological Association. She died whilst planning a trip to the Baltic, aged sixty-one.

Joan Pernel Strachey (1876-1951) was born in 1876 to Lady Jane Maria Strachey and Major Richard Strachey. She was educated at Allenswood School and Newnham College, Cambridge. After graduating, she lectured on French at Royal Holloway College between 1900-1905, moving to Newnham in 1905. In 1910 she was appointed as a tutor. In 1917 she became Director of Studies in Modern Languages, then in 1923, she was appointed principal of Newnham College. Pernel Strachey remained at Newnham College until her retirement in 1941. After this, she worked as a volunteer in the offices of the London and National Society for Women's Service, of which her sister Philippa was president. Through her family connections, most specifically through her brother Lytton Strachey, she was considered part of the Bloomsbury set. She died in 1951.

Philippa Strachey (1872-1968), known as Pippa, was born in 1872 to Lady Jane Maria Strachey and Major Richard Strachey. She was brought up first in India, where her father was a leading figure in the administration, and then in London, where the family moved in 1879. Her mother was active in the movement for women's suffrage and both Philippa and her siblings were encouraged to contribute to this work. In 1906 she became a member of the executive committee of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage and the following year she was elected the secretary of its successor the London Society for Women's Suffrage. In 1906 she joined the London Society for Women's Suffrage, succeeding Edith Palliser as secretary the following year. It was also in 1907 that she joined her mother Lady Jane Maria Strachey in organising what became known as the 'Mud March' at the instigation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and which went from Hyde Park to the Exeter Hall to demand the vote. During the First World War she was deeply involved in various war works, from being the secretary of the Women's Service Bureau for War Workers to participating as a member of the Committee for the London units of the Scottish Women's Hospital from 1914-1919. This war work began her lasting involvement with the issue of women's employment and she remained the secretary of the Women's Service Bureau after 1918 when it became concerned with helping women thrown out of jobs on the return of men from the Front. She remained there until its dissolution, which came in 1922, caused by a financial crisis in the parent organisation. However, subsequently Strachey helped to found a new group to fill the gap, becoming the secretary and then honorary secretary of the Women's Employment Federation. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, family problems took up much of her time as she nursed both her mother and her brother Lytton until their deaths. However, all through this time she remained active in the London Society for Women's Service and when it was renamed the Fawcett Society in 1951, she was asked to be its honorary secretary. It was that year that she was awarded the CBE for her work for women. She subsequently was made a governor of Bedford College. Increasing ill-health slowed the pace of her work and blindness finally forced her to enter a nursing home at the end of her life. She died in 1968.

Corporate histories:

British Federation of University Women (1909-fl.2007) was founded in 1909. The first Local Association of University Women was formed in Manchester in 1907 and others followed in Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield. In Jun 1909 a meeting of delegates from these Associations was held in the rooms of the Manchester University Women's Union. Also present were representatives of women's colleges and graduate institutions. The meeting passed a resolution 'That a Federation of University Women in the British Isles be formed' and a constitition and rules were drawn up. The objects of the Federation were to 'afford opportunity for the expression of united opinion and for concerted action by university women on matters especially affecting them'; 'to encourage independent research work by women'; 'to facilitate inter-communication and co-operation between the women of different universities'; and 'to stimulate the interest of university women in municipal and public life'. Members of the Local Associations that comprised the Federation were women who held university degrees or who had passed their final examinations; registered medical women or registered dentists; or women who had passed Oxford Honours Moderations. Women who had studies for two years at a university might be admitted as associates whilst those who had advanced the higher education or interests of women were admitted as honorary members. Further Local Associations were formed during the first year of the Federation in Bangor, Cambridge, London and St. Andrews.

The Six Point Group (1921-1983) was founded in the period after the granting of limited franchise to women in 1918. In this period the issues that women's organisations now had to deal with widened considerably to encompass general issues of women's social and economic status and their lack of equality with men under the law and in the professions. The Six Point Group was founded in 1921 by Lady Rhondda with six very specific aims in mind: 1) satisfactory legislation on child assault; 2) satisfactory legislation for the widowed mother; 3) satisfactory legislation for the unmarried mother and her child; 4) equal rights of guardianship for married parents; 5) equal pay for teachers and 6) equal opportunities for men and women in the civil service. These later evolved into six general points of equality for women: political, occupational, moral, social, economic and legal. During the 1920s, the group campaigned on strictly equality-based principles and was active in trying to have the League of Nations pass an Equal Rights Treaty. This was in direct contrast to other women's groups such as the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, which supported protectionist legislation that applied only to women such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' that was intended to be paid to women in order to ensure their financial independence. Much of its work was done through its journal, Time and Tide. From 1933, along with the Open Door Council, it spearheaded the movement for the right of married women to work. It was responsible for establishing the Income Tax Reform Council and in 1938, the Married Women's Association. During the Second World War, they campaigned on issues such as female volunteers in the Civil Defence Services receiving two-thirds the man's pay and compensation rate provided for by the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1939 by traditional constitutional methods: deputations to the appropriate government ministers, public rallies and letters to major newspapers. They were also closely involved in the Equal Compensation Campaign from 1941 to 1943 and subsequently had representatives beside the Open Door Council and the Fawcett Society on the committee of the Equal Pay Campaign from 1944 to ensure equal pay in the Civil Service. They continued to have a significant political influence after the war, taking part in the protest to have the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act changed to give married women more financial protection. From 1967, they played an active part in the co-ordination of other women's groups on a number of issues through that decade and into the next. However, later in the 1970s the group declined through its failure to recruit younger women and went into abeyance in 1980, finally dissolving itself in 1983. Throughout its existence the Six Point Group stressed its feminism and its belief in practical politics. It always emphasized its non-party stance, although at one stage members were pleased to be thought as the left-wing feminist group. Such women as Elizabeth Robins, Winifred Holtby, Dorothy Evans, Sybil Morrison, Dora Russell, Monica Whateley and, for very many years, Hazel Hunkins-Hallinan, played active roles in the group.