The Role of women in higher education - Bedford College and Newnham college

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The role of women in higher education – Bedford College and

Newnham College

C. V. BUREK

Centre for Science Communication, Department of Biological Sciences,

University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester, CH1 4BJ, UK

(e-mail: [email protected])

Abstract: This paper explores the place of geology within science education and the part womenhave played in geological higher education through history. The context is set firstly by exploringthe informal role women have played in education in general and secondly by examining in detailthe positions they held after 1870, when female higher education was put on to a more formalfooting. To illustrate this, the evolution of two female colleges of higher education, BedfordCollege, London, and Newnham College, Cambridge, both offering geological education withinscience, are evaluated within a wider educational context. Finally, the cases of Dr CatherineRaisin, who was based at Bedford College, and Dr Gertrude Elles, based at Newnham Collegeas role models are highlighted within this wider framework. This is supported by examining thestudent experience offered at these institutions through the formal laboratory and lecture provisionand also informally by societies, specifically the Sedgwick Club in Cambridge and the NaturalHistory Society at Bedford College, which were both supported strongly by the aforementionedfemale role models. Some other key figures, both students and staff, are also examined and ananalysis of student destinations from both institutions during the late 19th and early 20th centuriesare tabulated. The place of women firstly within science education and then specifically withingeological education forms the context of this paper. The conclusions develop a portrait ofearly geological role-model women.

Informal female educators

Women have always played a major informal partin family education, especially of their own off-spring, and also in some cultures in a wider extendedfamily network. There is a Fanti (Ghanaian)proverb: ‘If you educate a man, you educate an indi-vidual, but if you educate a woman, you educate afamily’. This has been expanded and modifiedseveral times and was quoted by UNESCO on theoccasion of its 50th anniversary as:

When you educate a man, you educate an individual.

When you educate a woman, you educate a family, a nation.

(L’Oreal 2006)

We might also add ‘And a family passes on what itlearns to the next generation’.

This well-known saying is attributed to thescholar and clergyman, Dr James EmmanuelKwegyir-Aggrey (1875–1927), one of the 20thcentury’s greatest educators and one of Africa’smost eminent men. Kwegyir-Aggrey probably usedthis proverb to convince African parents who weremore willing to allow their sons to attend missionaryschools than their daughters. Like many sayings, thisone makes its point by unqualified exaggeration tocapture our attention. The message here is that, oncewe know the value of education for men in society,

we should allow women to have equal access to it.This applies equally to scientific education and wasreiterated in 1894 by Sir Henry Roscoe in his inaugu-ral speech at Bedford College, London:

If men are all the better for scientific training, why not women? A

refined woman could not become unrefined by a knowledge of the

truths of nature. (Busk 1894)

It is now necessary to put science education andwomen into a historical context in order to establishthe place of women as geological educators andpossible role models in higher education.

Science education through history – a

female perspective

Looking at science in its entirety we see a changeoccurring in the 16th and 17th centuries fromwhat is termed ‘Old Science’ to the ‘NewScience’ of Bacon and Descartes. The world oflearning moved from looking at the Earth andnature as a living organism to the Earth as amachine (Sheffield 2004). This shift in thinkinghad profound implications for women’s role as con-tributors to formulating, advancing and securingscientific theory and the transfer of information.

Thus while Old Science recognized, respectedand encouraged women’s knowledge on

From: BUREK, C. & HIGGS, B. (eds) The Role of Women in the History of Geology. Geological Society,London, Special Publications, 281, 9–38.DOI: 10.1144/SP281.2 0305-8719/07/$15.00 # The Geological Society of London 2007.

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reproduction and the natural world treating them asequals, the New Science, with its reductionist ratherthan holistic approach, cut women out of the loop.They were no longer the producers or recipientsof technical books on domestic issues rangingfrom brewing beer to silkworm production or themore familiar midwifery skills. The New Sciencerequired active participation, experimentation andcontrol over nature. It required breaking up knowl-edge to understand it and this mechanical philos-ophy effectively removed most women fromstudy, which society perceived as a masculinepursuit. Women were regarded as weak and frivo-lous, reducing the seriousness of any study ifallowed to participate. Thus they were barredfrom scientific societies, such as the RoyalSociety, because of their perceived lack of intellec-tual rigour and understanding necessary to engagein serious science. This had tremendous impli-cations for women. They were no longer involvedin scientific experimentation or research at anylevel, except occasionally as family or wife assist-ants (Kolbl-Ebert 2002).

During the 17th and much of the 18th centuriesmale children were educated to become responsibleand independent individuals. Latin, for example,which was considered an importance entry qualifi-cation for university education right up to the1960s, was not regarded as a suitable subject forfemales and therefore was not normally taught togirls. Thus access to higher education was severelylimited if not effectively denied. Society generallythought that girls and boys should be given differenttypes of education, as their future needs were differ-ent. Girls were educated to be dependent, taughtFrench as a communication skill, and basicreading, music and needlework to enhance domesticskills as their expectations were to become wives andmothers. Of course there were exceptions, AnneConway (1631–79), Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) and Margaret Cavendish (1623–73) to namea few, but most upper and middle class girls werebored and ignorant (Sheffield 2004). The workingclasses had no time to be bored! However, as wejourney through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries,we see a gradual move from a perception ofscience in the United Kingdom being wholly mas-culine to a realization that a certain type of domesti-cated science for women was permissible.

Mode of education

Throughout the 18th century some people wouldquestion the validity of not educating youngwomen and it was eventually recognized thatscience could promote domestic harmony, as por-trayed in James Ferguson’s (1710–76) YoungGentlemen and Lady’s Astronomy (Ferguson 1748).

By the late 18th century science, botany especiallywas taught through drawing, collecting and writing.This particular science education was seen tosupport gardening, herbalism, modelling, walking,floral arrangements and would be taught bymothers, governesses or artists (often male). Thiscould also include an appreciation and understand-ing of landscapes. Thus by the mid-19th century,botany had become a feminized science, so muchso that, by 1887, J. F. A. Adams was asking‘Is Botany a Suitable Study for Young Men?’(Sheffield 2004).

Generally through the late 18th and 19th cen-turies, Middle- and Upper-class women werestarting to obtain a science education throughbooks written especially for them, such as JohnBonnycastle’s Introduction to Astronomy as aseries of letters (Bonnycastle 1796) or John Lind-ley’s (1799–1865) Ladies Botany (Lindley 1865).In 1889, Charles Kingsley published one of thefirst earth science books for children, MadamHow and Lady Why, which introduces boys togeology through conversations about earthquakes,volcanoes, coral reefs, and so on. In the prefacehe starts ‘My dear boys, when I was aboutyour age, there were no such children’s booksas there are now’. It encouraged them towonder about the distinctive features of the land-scape and how they came to be that way. Somebooks were actually written by women forwomen, for example Jane Marcet’s (1769–1858) Conversations on Mineralogy (Marcet1829) or Miss Arabella Buckley’s (1840–1929)‘The Fairy-Land of Science’ and other books onnature and elementary science (Buckley 1879).The latter were recommended to BedfordCollege student teachers in an article by MissHenrietta Busk, dated 1895 and Q1entitled ‘Geogra-phy as a school subject’. Arabella Buckley wasSir Charles Lyell’s secretary for several yearsand therefore exposed to current geological think-ing. These books were often conversations orletters between either a mother and her childrenor between teachers and pupils which were con-sidered so much easier for females to understand.This whole genre of literature was known as‘polite science’ (Sheffield 2004).

So on the whole women were students ofscience and teachers to their children. They werethus consumers not producers of science. Thisinformality was to change in the 1870s as femalescience education became more formal.

The beginning of higher education

for women

During the second half of the 19th century somehigher education institutions for women were

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being founded. These were partly underpinned in aneducational sense by two private schools whichwere spearheading female education at secondarylevel. These were established during the 1850salong enlightened lines and included. NorthLondon Collegiate School and Cheltenham’sLadies College. Then, between 1871 and 1878, 16‘Girls Public Day School Trust’ high schools wereopened and universities started to open their doorsto girls and allow them to take local exams.Bedford College had already been in existencesince 1849 and had initially found this lack of high-quality female students a distinct challenge. Therelationship between women’s colleges in Cam-bridge and leading girl’s secondary schools isdealt with in detail by Creese (1991).

Cambridge. It was in 1864 that Cambridge Univer-sity open exams became available to women and, inpartial response, two colleges were established:Girton College and Newnham College.

The first was started in 1869 by Emily Daviesand the second by Professor Henry Sidgwick anda small group of advanced thinkers. They broughtAnne Clough (the sister of the poet ArthurClough) from Liverpool to be the head in 1871and five girls became students. When ProfessorHenry Sidgwick was asked why Miss Clough wasappointed he stated: ‘My desire for her co-operationwas partly on account of her long devotion tothe improvement of the education of women’(Sidgwick 1897).Q1

The ethos of these two colleges was different.Girton insisted that the women were treatedexactly the same as men. Students followed thesame curriculum and did the same exams. Therewas no compromise although Newnham College,under Miss Clough, did allow some flexibility(Cockburn 1987). While Cambridge Universityallowed female students to attend lectures from1870, they were not allowed to take formal examsuntil 1875.

By 1879 Somerville College and Lady MargaretHall had been established in Oxford to cater fortheir female students. These colleges were all essen-tially residential. This differed substantially fromother institutions set up in the capital or indeedcivic colleges, which were aimed at a more localpopulation.

Degrees were not awarded to women atNewnham until 1921 and until that date manyladies crossed the Irish Sea to Ireland, specificallyto Trinity College Dublin, to get their degrees.These ladies were known as the ‘Boat Ladies’(see Higgs & Wyse Jackson 2007). In 1926women were allowed to become professors, andfemale students became eligible for studentshipsand prizes. In fact Newnham College did not

formally become part of the University of Cam-bridge until 1948.

London: Bedford College. It must be rememberedthat the University of London was an examiningand degree-giving body and did not teach, so stu-dents undertaking the exams were taught elsewhere.In 1878, University College London allowedwomen into its lectures. However BedfordCollege had already been in existence for sometime before this.

Bedford College has its beginnings in 1849when a Ladies College in Bedford Square was inau-gurated by Mrs Elizabeth Reid, a widow after only13 months of marriage. She was a Unitarian whowas driven by high moral values: to improvesociety by educating mothers. ‘If they could butsee and feel as I do, that we shall never havebetter men till men have better mothers’ (letterfrom Mrs Reid to Henry Crabb Robinson 1858,Quoted in Tuke 1939). It was not learning for learn-ing’s sake. This was to come later. Two of BedfordCollege’s early students had literary connections.Mary Ann Evans, alias George Eliot, arrived in1851 for one term to study maths and CharlesDickens’s daughter Catherine arrived in 1852 toattend lectures. So elements of an enlightenedLondon society supported the move to educate itsyoung ladies.

Mrs Reid’s trustees for the college wereErasmus Darwin, older brother of the futurefamous Charles, Thomas Farrer, and HensleighWedgwood, Erasmus’s cousin and later chair ofthe general Committee. Erasmus was chair for 20years (1850–69) and a member of the collegeuntil his death in 1891. A detailed history of theearly difficult evolution of Bedford College isgiven in Tuke (1939). By 1869, the same year thatNewnham College was established, BedfordCollege was on a firmer footing, with a new consti-tution, and the college was incorporated as anassociation under Board of Trade regulations as apublic company not trading for profit. By the late1870s the College effectively had to decidewhether it was half school/half college or whetherit should align itself with the university. It optedto the latter and, in 1877, entrance exams wereestablished. The following year classes for matricu-lation and degree examinations for the University ofLondon were offered.

During the first 45 years of Bedford College,numbers rose and fell, only really reaching stabilitywhen funding from the government became securein 1894. By this time the staff numbered 17, withthree assistants in Greek, Latin and combinedmathematics and physics. All the assistants werefemale but only two of the lecturers (times have

WOMEN IN GEOLOGICAL HIGHER EDUCATION 11

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not changed greatly). Table 1 shows the range ofsubjects taught at this time.

All the staff were part time before 1894 andoften taught elsewhere as well. Catherine Raisin,for example, in her letter of acceptance of the viceprincipal position in 1898 states:

With regard to outside work, I may say that I should not be willing

myself to take any additional teaching . . . I have for years refused

and given up all such (with the one exception which I mentioned)

since I believed it was right for the college to keep for my own

work any time which I could spare from my lectures and labora-

tory. (Raisin 1898)

So from 1894 onwards many positions were fulltime.

This situation changed dramatically by the timeSir Henry Roscoe (from Owen’s College, Manche-ster) gave his inaugural lecture in 1894. BedfordCollege had just been awarded its first grant fromthe government, as announced by Dr Russel, thenChairman of the Council:

£700 a year had been awarded to Bedford College and this was the

only Women’s College that had received such recognition. (Busk

1894)

Sir Roscoe was very complimentary in his lectureand was loudly applauded. His concludingremarks show the improved status of the collegein the eyes of the world (of men)

The fact that Bedford College was taking the lead in the matter of

women’s higher education.

This was further amplified in the reply by ProfessorRucker:

The success of this Institution depends not only on the work done

within it, but also on the opinions of the world. . . . We want the

world to recognise what we are doing and although we are doing

the very best we can with the means we possess [my italics], we

mean to agitate for better means, and we hope some day to

obtain better buildings in which to house the college. (Busk 1894)

These statements certainly show that BedfordCollege had increased its standing in society com-pared to 20 years earlier. In 1900, BedfordCollege became part of the University of Londonand this had a further tremendous impact on thepublic perception of the college.

Admission and awarding of degrees

In 1879 (Anon. 1888b), the University of Londonallowed female students to take their exams. It isinteresting to note that the presentation of awards,whether degrees, diplomas, scholarships or prizes,were received by students at Burlington Housefrom the Chancellor of the University of London(Fig. 1). The University Council report of 1878/9states that 11 women in total took exams. By1888, 145 women in total had taken a BA (47from Bedford) and 19 a BSc (11 from Bedford).There were also 7 MAs: 4 from Bedford by thisdate (Anon. 1888b). However, on 9 May 1888only one student from Bedford College received aBSc from Earl Grenville, Chancellor: a certainMiss Semmens (Anon. 1888a). In 1893, BurlingtonHouse again served as the venue for receipt ofdegrees but in this year there were no sciencestudents, only 10 for BAs and 2 BA students forpostgraduate teaching diplomas (Anon 1893).

By 1897, seven students from BedfordCollege alone passed the intermediate scienceexam and three passed the BSc. (BHW 1897). Q1Ayear later, in 1898, nine passed the intermediateexam and two the BSc. However it must be recog-nized that, initially, both Bedford and RoyalHolloway Colleges, the two female collegesserving London, were looked down upon by theother London colleges and instruction of womenwas often left to individual professors, such asHuxley. However, Bedford College did offerevening classes for English, Latin and mathematicsin preparation for the Cambridge local examin-ations as well as for the London Universityexaminations.

In comparison, Victoria University, founded in1851 as Owens’s College (later Manchester Univer-sity), the first of the civic colleges following thepattern of University College London (Roderick& Stephens 1972), did not admit female studentsuntil 1883 (Whitworth 2000), the same year thatthe Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge openedtheir doors to women. Cambridge and Oxford didnot award degrees to women until 1948 and 1920respectively. However, women were not admittedto full university status until 1948 in Cambridgeand 1959 in Oxford. The women were allowedinto exams and to attend lectures but, because ofmale student outcry, they could not be publiclyrecognized.

As British universities did not award degrees towomen until 1876 (Kolbl-Ebert 2001), it was quitecommon during the late 19th and early the 20th cen-turies for women to travel across the Irish Sea toTrinity College, Dublin, to receive their degrees(Higgs & Wyse-Jackson 2007). They were knownas the ‘Boat People’ and included the geologists

Table 1. Bedford College: subjects taught in 1894

Biology (Animal) History (Ancient) LatinBiology

(Vegetable)History (Modern) English

Chemistry Greek FrenchPhysics Mathematics ArtGeography &

GeologyMental & Moral

ScienceGerman

Pianoforte

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Gertrude Elles and Ethel Skeat from NewnhamCollege, Cambridge. It is interesting to note thatthe issue of female attendance in lectures wassomething Professor McKenny Hughes from theCambridge geology department was specificallyasked in 1892 by Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick, thePrincipal of Newnham College.

An effort is being made to get the classes of Trinity College,

Dublin opened to women, and . . . I have been asked to collect

information as to the working of mixed classes of men and

women here, which those who are promoting this movement in

Dublin may lay before the authorities. (Sidgwick 1892)

And then towards the end of her letter:

We have I think very few such classes in Cambridge, but it stuck

me that the work done in your geological excursions and museum

is something of the same kind and I am therefore especially desir-

ous to be able to report your opinion on the subject.

This is interesting considering Dublin was preparedto give women degrees. A week later he answers thequestions after admitting to consulting his col-leagues in the Woodwardian Museum. They showthe feeling of the geology department towards

mixed teaching in the early 1890s.This is discussedin detail by Wyse Jackson & Higgs (2007).

Professor McKenny Hughes was renowned forhis tolerance of ladies in geological fieldwork andis often pictured in the field with both male andfemale students, accompanied by his wife as cha-perone (Fig. 2). If we look at Professor Hughes’sexcursion albums from both 1892 and later, in1913, the percentage of women participantsremained at about 33%.

The medical profession was the first discipline toallow women to take higher education courses andbecome ‘professionalized’; this occurred duringthe late 1860s and early 1870s in Edinburgh, fol-lowed later by England during the 1870s and 1880s.

In this respect, it is interesting to note thatElizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first female, Britishdoctor (MD, University of Paris, 1869) applied tobecome a physiology lecturer at Bedford Collegein 1867 once she had qualified as an apothecary in1865, but was turned down because physiologywas not considered a suitable subject for women.This did not change until it was offered as a coursein 1882.

Fig. 1. Women receiving University of London Degrees.


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Science teaching and laboratories

By the late 1880s, science was no longer taught anddemonstrated by a lecturer at the front of the class,as Buckland had done. It was now necessary for thestudents to do experiments themselves. The firstlaboratories for female students were built for theladies of Girton and Newnham College in Cam-bridge: the Balfour Biological Laboratories, whichwere in use between 1884 and 1914 (Sheffield2004). However, women were not admitted towork as undergraduates in the Cavendish Labora-tory for Physics until 1882 (Sheffield 2004) or theUniversity Chemical Laboratories until 1910,‘much to the annoyance of the “lab boys”, who evi-dently expected us to give them more trouble thanthe men’ (Ball 1988).

In London by 1886 there were recommendationsfrom a special subcommittee set up by BedfordCollege that new laboratories be built. Thus, in1888, it was proposed to build a physics as wellas a chemistry laboratory in the new wing, thebiological laboratory (Fig. 3) being retained onthe present premises (Anon. 1888a). There was nomention of geology. The Shaen Wing (namedafter Mr William Shaen, the lawyer and a supporterof female education from the beginning) for teach-ing physics and chemistry was ready by Easter1890, and three laboratories were built and

opened by the Empress Frederick of Prussia inthat year. When the Empress Frederick and herdaughter arrived to formally open the new Shaenwing in 1891, the Bedford College London Maga-zine recorded that:

The Empress Frederick came to see for herself what a working

Ladies’ College was like: she looked closely into everything and

carried away the calendar of the college with its rules and regu-

lations, which she said she intended carefully to read. (Story-

Maskelyne 1891)

Thus Bedford College was considered more voca-tional and technical.

The importance of these science laboratoriesfor women within higher education in London ishighlighted in a quote from 1890 in Nature, whichstated:

Bedford College in York Place, Baker St, which was one of the

earliest institutions devoted to the higher education of women is

taking a leading part in providing facilities for their instruction

in science. Founded long before Oxford and Cambridge condes-

cended to the ‘weaker sex’, it is the result of the work of enthu-

siasts who would not admit the possibility of defeat. It has had

to struggle not only against the inevitable difficulties due to its

early foundation but against the apathy of London. The colleges

for women at Oxford and Cambridge share in the picturesque sur-

roundings of those old homes of learning. Bedford College has had

no such advantages. London Institutions are regarded as either

Imperial or Parochial as too large or too small to interest its citi-

zens. (Anon. 1890)

Fig. 2. Field trip with Professor McKenny Hughes in 1896.

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By 1894, Dr Russel was able to announce ‘theTechnical Board of the County Council [London]had this year granted £500 for the further expansionof the laboratories’ (Busk 1894) and Sir Roscoecommented in his inaugural speech that he was:

. . . glad to hear that £500 was going to be spent on the laboratories,

as science was no good without laboratories, and laboratories were

no good without adequate fitting and apparatus. Classicists and

mathematicians do very well with a black board and a piece of

chalk, but the chemist, physicist, biologist, geologist and botanist

must have more. (Busk 1894)

The support of royalty for this initiative started tochange public opinion and, on 5 July 1913, QueenMary herself came to open the new buildings andlaboratories (Fig. 4).

Higher education in geology for women in

England at the end of the 19th century

Having now set the scientific educational context, itis necessary to examine geology, in particular inhigher education in England.

Formal female geological study at this time wasdifficult and the options were limited. Problemsincluded fieldwork, religion, and socially acceptedstandards and etiquette. However there were twolocations where it was possible for women to

study geology: Newnham College, Cambridge,and Bedford College, London, but it must beremembered that they were started 20 years apartin different social climates and for differentreasons. The clientele of these colleges was alsodifferent, with Newnham aimed at the higherclasses of society. Bedford College, which, like itsforerunner University College was founded in1826 and modelled on the University of Berlin(Roderick & Stephens 1972), was designed toprovide higher education for those members of themiddle classes unable to gain entry into Oxford orCambridge Universities and to provide the studyof subjects not available at the older universities,which concentrated on the classics and theology.

Both Bedford and Newnham Colleges produced agood crop of female geologists during the last yearsof Queen Victoria’s reign and into the beginning ofthe 20th century. These students then went out toact as role models and to teach other girls therewards of learning about science, includinggeology. For comparison, the University of Liverpooldid not teach geology except as evening classes untila chair of geology was created at the beginning ofWorld War 1 (Roderick & Stephens 1972).

While both Newnham and Bedford Collegeswere residential and offered accommodation forfemale students, this facility did not initially allow

Fig. 3. (a) Laboratory at Q16Bedford College; (b) Student working in the laboratory at Bedford College.


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them to study as part of the wider universities ofLondon and Cambridge. It was deemed unsuitablefor female students to move around unchaperoned.

We did not take much part in the life of the University, and we

suffered may restrictions. We were asked always to wear gloves

in the town (and of course hats) we must not ride a bicycle in

the main streets, nor take a boat out on the river in the day time

unless accompanied by a chaperone who must be either a

married woman or one of the College Dons. (Crowther 1896)

However, Bedford College in London had a higherpercentage of day students and many of their

students were local. Figure 5 shows one of thestudy bedrooms that the girls would have lived in,often isolated from the other members of the univer-sity and college. For some these were lonely times.

Geology at Newnham College,

Cambridge University

Geology was not taught as a separate subject until1877. So students undertaking geology were per-mitted into the Tripos examinations informally

Fig. 4. Queen Mary’s visit to Bedford College in 1913.

Fig. 5. Study bedroom in the hall of residence, Garden Square, opened in 1883.

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and only by the favour of private examiners. In1881, Newnham students were formally allowedinto the Tripos exams and were then awarded a cer-tificate to say they had done so. The students atNewnham was overjoyed and it is recorded thatthere was much jubilation when this happened asthe votes were 398 for and 32 against (Andrews1881). By 1885, 80% of Newnham students weresitting for the exams (Tuke 1939).

The first strong influence on successful femaleparticipation in geology at Cambridge in the 1890swas the presence of Dr Marr and ProfessorMcKenny Hughes, who were both liberal in theirattitude to female participation at all levels (Hughes1892; Creese & Creese 2006). They encouragedfemales to take up geology as part of their studies.

Dear Dr Marr would come stamping into the lecture room, his

gown streaming behind him and cut and slice the country up

with gusto. Glaciers streamed slowly down, rivers meandered or

were beheaded, such ‘noxious spots’ as the Fens spread them-

selves, and only the ancient hills of his beloved Lakeland and Scot-

land remained to make habitable spots for decent folk. All the

same we all panted joyfully after him, filing notebook after note-

book with more or less legible writing. (Ball 1988)

The curriculum at this time included microscopy,mapwork, fieldwork, palaeontology and petrogra-phy and it is interesting to look at some of ProfessorMcKenny Hughes’s remarks on teaching women inthese classes.

I have had more experience in the arrangement of classes adap-

tation of Museum and laboratories and regulation of even excur-

sions for mixed classes than any of those who have spoken and I

maintain that no difficulties have arisen from the presence of

women. We have to subdivide classes because they have

become too large or because we have not a sufficient number of

microscopes or of window space to work at. We have recognised

the convenience of dividing the classes into elementary and

advanced but not into classes of men and classes of women.

These are transcribed from his notes of his discus-sion for admission of women into the university in1887 (McKenny Hughes 1887).

The first student to include geology in herstudies was Dilys Davies, who started as a studentin 1876. She left in 1878 to become a teacher atthe progressive North London Collegiate Collegejust after Catherine Raisin had left. In 1889 shemoved to Bangor and served on the education com-mittee before becoming a governor of Bangor Uni-versity College. She died in 1932 after a lifetime ofservice to education (see Fig. 15).

The second was Margaret Chorley Crosfield,who arrived in 1878 but left after a year due topoor health. However she returned 10 years laterwith special permission to just study geology. Hercontribution to geological research is documentedelsewhere in this volume (Burek & Malpas 2007).

The third was Margaret Isabella Gardiner, astudent from 1882 to 1888, who became a teacherat Withington and then Aldeburgh School. Shedied in 1944. However, the main crop of femalegeologists occurred in 1891 with what I havetermed the ‘Newnham Quartet of palaeontologists’.These were Margaret Crosfield, Ethel Skeat, EthelWood and Gertrude Elles. Each contributed signifi-cantly but in a different way to the advancement ofgeological knowledge, and each also acted as a rolemodel in her own way: as lecturer, researcher,teacher, participant or recorder. Margaret Cros-field’s written legacy and Ethel Skeat’s scientificcontribution has been discussed elsewhere (Burek& Malpas 2007) while the work of Elles andWood is known to any student of graptolite palaeoe-cology or indeed palaeontology in general (Elles &Wood 1901–1918). While Margaret and the twoEthels left Newnham College, Gertrude Ellesremained associated with Newnham for over 40years. However she did also temporary demonstratefor Catherine Raisin at Bedford College in 1903(See Table 11).

Ethel Wood (Fig. 6) moved to Birmingham andfor 10 years (1896–1906) was research secretary toProfessor Lapworth. However, she married GilbertShakespear, a fellow student from St John’sCambridge, in 1906 and had to give up her researchjob on marriage, as was usual at this time. Sheremained an associate of Newnham College from

Fig. 6. Ethel Wood.


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1905 to 1920. In 1920, she was made a Dame of theBritish Empire not for her geological work but forher contribution to the War Pensions Commission,of which she was the founder. Her friends and col-leagues tried to persuade her to return to researchafter World War 1 but her social work did notallow it.

Ethel Skeat was a research scholar for 2 yearsand then moved to study in Munich under Zittel.On 8 March 1896, she was the first woman to beadmitted as a guest to scientific lectures atMunich University, after a petition was placedbefore the senate by Zittel. Skeat had been rec-ommended to him by colleagues from Cambridge(Kolhl-Ebert pers comm. 2004). In 1898 shemoved to Penarth, south Wales, to teach and then,5 years later, to Queen’s School, Chester, whereshe is recorded as an excellent teacher an inspirationto the girls she taught (Burek & Malpas 2007).

The second crop of students, in the form ofPauline Baguley, Beatrice Brailsford, HildaSharpe and Igerna Sollas, entered Newnham justas the first quartet left. Of these, only Igernaremained at Newnham, not as a geologist but as azoology lecturer (Fig. 7). The other three left tobecome teachers initially in Bradford and Wallasey.Their training and subsequent teaching inspiredother girls to undertake geology as a subject.

In 1900 Helen Drew and Ida Slater arrived tostudy geology as part of their degrees (Fig. 8).Helen Drew became a teacher, travelling toBristol, London, Bradford and Newark, and diedwhile still in post at the age of 46 years. IdaSlater, after undertaking research, became a demon-strator for Catherine Raisin at Bedford for 2 yearsfrom 1910.

Thus we have built up a picture of cohorts ofgirls arriving to study geology in Newnham andthen leaving upon successful graduation, with themajority entering one of the few careers availableto them: teaching science. This story continuesuntil the end of World War 1 when other avenuesstarted opening up for female geologists.

The strong influence of Dr Marr and ProfessorMcKenny Hughes on female geological educationin the United Kingdom is commented on byCreese & Creese (2006) but this is also augmentedby a second influence: informal networking of like-minded individuals.

Sedgwick Club

The second influence was enhanced by theSedgwick Club which, from 24 January 1896,allowed women to participate in their activities(Sedgwick Club 1896). As this is at odds with

Fig. 7. Staff of Newnham Q16College.

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much common practice at the time it is worth notingin detail. The minutes of 21 January 1896 read:

Mr Brend [of Sidney College] then gave notice that at the next

meeting he would propose the following amendment of the

Rules of the Club whereby ladies should become eligible to be

admitted as members of the club. Rule 3 to insert the words ‘of

lady members’ so that the rule should read ‘that the Club consist

of ordinary members who shall be resident in the University of

lady members and of honorary members . . . etc’.

It is followed by:

Mr Brend then asked the President whether he might propose

ladies as members of the club so that their election might be pro-

ceeded with at the next meeting if the requisite amendment of the

rules were carried. The president said in answer that the names of

ladies wishing to become members of the club might be given to

the secretary and that in the event of their becoming elligible

[sic] for membership at the next meeting, their names might

then be taken as having been proposed at the previous meeting.

On 24 January 1896 Mr Brend was invited topropose the resolution and speak to it.

Mr Brend then said that the club existed with the object of promot-

ing the study of geology and that as there were now ladies working

at the Woodwardian Museum who had shown good ability in the

pursuit of that science he thought that the club would benefit by

admitting them as members.

There was criticism from one member but that wasdismissed and

Mr Cunningham-Cray in seconding said that as a matter of

common justice whatever advantages the Club offered should be

open to students of the University whether men or women on

exactly the same footing.

A slight amendment was then put forward as Girtonand Newnham College were not actually membersof the university so it read:

Rule 3 should read ‘That the Club consist of ordinary members

who shall be resident members (1) of the University or (2) of

Girton and Newnham Colleges; and of honorary members, . . . etc.’

The amendment was seconded and after discussion‘carried unanimously’. Rule 4 also had to bechanged to read:

That the number of ordinary members shall not exceed twelve

undergraduates and six ladies.

Again this was carried unanimously.Thus the ladies of Cambridge entered into the

Sedgwick Club, which was obviously more liberalthan the university itself. This allowed additionalnetworking, practical fieldwork and additional lec-tures to become available to females, whichenhanced their student experience. While theywere limited in numbers by the rules of the Club,this mixing was still something not readily availableto other female members of the universitycommunity.

Fig. 8. Freshers in 1900 at Newnham Q16College.


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By May 1896, only 5 months after first beingadmitted, the full contingent of females had beenreached.

Gertrude Elles went on to become secretary andthen president in 1902, while another Newnhamstudent Ida Slater became secretary in 1903.

Louisa Jebb was an interesting member becauseshe was an agricultural student and became the firstfemale to take the university agricultural diploma.She then ran her father’s farm, becoming an auth-ority on smallholdings. She created the Women’sNational Service conference, becoming presidentin 1916. It was from this the Women’s LandArmy developed and, for this, she was awardedthe OBE in 1918.

The admittance of ladies into the Sedgwick Cluballowed the students at the female colleges,especially Newnham, to participate socially ingeological activities. It is interesting to note thatGilbert Shakespear from Trinity is photographedas a member of the Sedgwick Club in 1898(Fig. 9); he was to become Ethel Wood’s husbandin 1906. The records and minutes of the SedgwickClub make fascinating reading in this regard andtell of some of the activities undertaken by thestudents.

Thus in the last decade of Queen Victoria’s reign(the 1890s), Newnham College students werefavourably influenced by both the liberal nature ofthe geology lecturers and the male students in the

Fig. 9. Members of the Sedgwick Club, Cambridge, 1898. Gilbert Shakesphere is seated at the end of the secondrow onthe right.

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guise of Professor McKenny Hughes and Dr Parrand the networking allowed by the Sedgwick Club.

Thus geology at Newnham College startedslowly but then went from strength to strength.As we enter the 20th century, Gertrude Ellesplayed a key role in this development.

Gertrude Elles (1872–1960)

Gertrude Lilian Elles was born in Wimbledon,Surrey, near London, on 8 October 1872, of Scottishextraction. At the age of 19 years she went up toCambridge University, studying for the NaturalScience Tripos, gaining a first-class honoursdegree in 1895 and becoming the first female tobe awarded a Cambridge University readership 30years later. She participated fully in college lifeand was an ardent member of the hockey team in1891 (Fig. 10) (Cockburn 1987). She nevermarried but spent the majority of her life in Cam-bridge at Newnham College and was recognizedas an excellent and enthusiastic teacher. Onestudent from 1908–11 recalls:

The energy, kindliness and enthusiasm of Miss Elles made her

perhaps the most inspiring influence in those glorious years,

which culminated in an unforgettable Sedgwick Club trip to

Church Stretton. (Ball 1988)

Another student, somewhat later (1920), commentson the dress code.

Our dons in those days wore a variety of suits and dresses, but their

skirts were always long. Miss Elles I can see in brown tweeds.

(Fig. 11); Halliday 1988

By 1926 another student comments on hats:

And when women began to lecture in 1928 they lectured in hats.

We didn’t wear gowns, and Newnham and Girton decided

between them I think with the leadership of Girton, that the appro-

priate wear was a hat. So the Newnham Fellows had lecturing hats.

Not too large, turned up in the brim, just neat and appropriate. The

Don (Dr Elles) had a marvellous sort of russet-coloured felt hat

that she plonked on her head; it had a brim which swept across

her nose and the crown was almost non-existent. (Grimshaw 1988)

She was a very stimulating teacher, and not only of members of the

College – she was in great demand. She taught geological

mapping in the Sedgwick: everybody went to that. She was mar-

vellously clear and very, very fierce.

By 1926 she was very deaf too and by 1930 she wasvice principal and

being deaf she talked in a very quiet voice, but it was well worth

the effort to hear her stories of the supernatural. (Ingledew 1988)

From these few student quotes it is easy to demon-strate how Gertrude Elles became a role modelteacher.

However, her fame was made not in the field ofteaching but in research. Her contribution to thestudy and classification of graptolites has not beensurpassed to date. She spent 12 years compiling atreatise on British graptolites (with her colleagueand friend Ethel Wood (later Dame Ethel Shake-spear) under the guidance of Professor Lapworthat Birmingham University. This became a seminalwork on the evolution and taxonomy of graptolites,and Gertrude and Ethel are inextricably linkedwith graptolite research (Elles & Wood 1901–18).Gertrude Elles’s work on the genera of graptolites

Fig. 10. Gertrude Elles (front row left) in the Newnham College hockey team, 1891.


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from North Wales, the Skiddaw Slates of the LakeDistrict, and the Wenlock Shales of the Welshborders eventually led to her receiving the presti-gious Lyell Fund from the Geological Society ofLondon. She was not able to receive it in personbecause women at that time (1900) were prohibitedfrom attending meetings. She was one of the firstpeople to look at not individual specimens of fossilsbut at the concept of communities of organisms. In1919, she became one of the first women to becomea Fellow of the Geological Society of London andthe same year she received the Murchison medalfrom the Society in recognition of her work.

However, she was also generous in her help ofothers and readily gave advice to her research

associates and the Cambridge old girl’s network(see Burek & Malpas 2007).

Her work also concentrated on stratigraphy andshe published over ten papers on Lower Palaeozoicstratigraphy (Elles & Wood 1895; Elles & Slater1906; Elles 1909, 1922a, b).

Among her other accolades she received theMBE for her work with the British Red Cross inthe United Kingdom during World War 1. Shewas an active worker with them for many years.She was also elected president of the British Associ-ation in 1923.

As she approached old age, she became evenmore deaf and eccentric in her ways, living sur-rounded by fossils, rocks and papers. Her

Fig. 11. Professor McKenny Hughes (centre) on a field trip with students, Malverns, 1913.

Table 2. Sedgwick Club first six female Q17members

Date Name College Proposed by College Seconded by College

24 Jan. 1896 Gertrude Elles Newnham Mr Brend Sidney Mr Cunningham-Cray ClareEthel Wood Newnham Mr Brend Sidney Mr Kitson TrinityLouisa Jebb Newnham Mr Brend Sidney Mr Cunningham-Cray Clare

3 Mar. 1896 Ethel Skeat Newnham Miss Elles Newnham Miss Jebb Newnham5 May 1896 Miss Hugon Newnham Miss Jebb Newnham Mr Brend Sidney

Miss Phillips Newnham Mr Brend Sidney Mr Pentecost Christ

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idiosyncrasies were remembered by many for years(Hancock pers. comm. 2000). However, she alwaysconsidered fieldwork to be the key to a good geol-ogist and an invaluable aid for a good understandingof palaeontology and stratigraphy. Eventually herlove of her Scottish homeland, called her back per-manently (she had always spent considerable timethere fishing and researching metamorphic rocks)and Gertrude Elles died in Scotland in 1960 at theage of 88 years. Throughout her life, she hadmade a significant contribution to both the statusof women in science, especially the field of earthsciences, where she acted as an important rolemodel, and to the understanding of graptolitepalaeoecology and their recognition as stratigraphiczone fossils.

Geology at Bedford College, London

The subjects of geology, geography and botany hadan intertwined history at Bedford College.

Geography was taught as a separate subject fromthe beginning in 1849 but had a chequered history(Table 3) and had no separate department until1920. The place of physical geography withinBedford College is definitely a case of feast andfamine. Its link with geology is positively shown,and it was Catherine Raisin, head of geology(Fig. 12), who argued for a separate geographydepartment after World War 1. However, this situ-ation was not that dissimilar to other higher edu-cation institutions, as no geography degree wasoffered anywhere until 1917, when the universitiesof Liverpool and Aberystwyth established them.

Geology was not taught as a separate subjectuntil 1885 (see Table 1 for a list of subjects taught

at Bedford in 1894), when a department wasestablished.

The first woman graduated in geology in 1884and the second in 1888. By 1897, geology wasbecoming increasingly popular and while

of late years no one here has taken geology for the BSc but now the

subject has come into favour again, and the students are most ener-

getic over the work and the journeys to South Kensington

Museum. (BHW 1897) Q1

So, in the beginning, geology had its ups and downsbut it was nevertheless taught for 100 years inBedford College until its amalgamation withRoyal Holloway College in 1985.

The Bedford College geology department hadsix leaders, either as head of department or as pro-fessors throughout its history. These are listed inTable 4, together with their contribution to thedevelopment of geology as a subject in thecollege running both departments from 1890 to1898 and the shared laboratory facilities. Q2Thelaboratory facilities were improved after 1897 andnot before time (see Morton Sumner bequest). Thelaboratories had little equipment, few specimensor maps, nothing resembling the museum facilitiesavailable to Newnham students. Nevertheless, thecongested state of the lecture rooms in Nos 8 and9 York Place became so bad that it was necessaryto move the training department next door toNo. 10, along with ‘the Botany and Geology sothat Miss Raisin will have two laboratory-lecturerooms’ (Anon. 1896).

There were two major turning points for the suc-cessful teaching of geology at Bedford College:

† Mrs Morton Sumner’s bequest;† New labs for old in 1897 and 1913.

Table 3. Bedford College: Position in physical geography (1849–1947)

Years Name Notes Number ofstudents

1849–50 Rev. James Booth FRS Taught scientific geography and astronomy 1st term: 32nd term: 123rd term: 18

1850–51 Rev. Thomas Wilson Taught English, astronomy and Geography1851–54 Alexander Bain Evening class taught by an educated weaver1854–66 Gottfried Kinkel Professor of fine art who also taught geography1866–74 Professor William Hughes Part time from King’s College1882–85 E. G. Ravenstein Cartographer and history of exploration1885–1920 Grenville Cole &

Catherine RaisinGeography marginalized (no degree in geography)

and taught within geology department.Value seen during expansion of theBritish Empire and during World War 1.

1920–47 Blanche Hosgood Shadowy figure who published little but whosename is still attached to a prize, courtesy ofCatherine Raisin’s bequest


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Morton Sumner bequest

The Morton Sumner bequest was fundamentallyimportant to the success of geology at BedfordCollege as it secured a named geology teaching pos-ition and allowed a dedicated curator and professorto be employed. From 1907 this was CatherineRaisin who, for many years, was only granted ayearly renewal of her contract, despite her requestsfor longer term contracts for planning purposes(Burek 2002).Q1

The terms of the bequest from Mrs MortonSumner were given in the 1901 College magazineto the staff and student body of the College as:

£4000 and a large number of books, pictures, bookcases and geo-

logical specimens of great value. Of the sum of £4000, £2000 is to

be invested and the income used for the payment of a salary to a

curator of the books, pictures etc, while the other £2000 is to be

expended at the discretion of the Council.

This is reflected in the salaries documented aroundthis time.

Table 6 gives an idea of the salaries expectedand the increase in salaries as the college gainedboth more students and a better public perceptionafter University status in 1900.

Mrs Morton Sumner had presented books andspecimens to the department before. For example,in 1894 she had presented

a cabinet of minerals, a cabinet of rocks with a catalogue as well as

for Prestwick’s Geology, Nicholson’s Palaeontology, Teall’s

British Petrography and the Story of our Planet by Professor

Bonney. Miss Raisin was the means of obtaining so large a

donation from Mrs. Morton Sumner as she called on her and sub-

mitted to her lists of books which would be valuable in the library.

(Jones 1894)

Indeed it can be surmised that Catherine Raisin wasalso responsible for the donation by Professor

Table 4. Bedford College: leaders of the geology department (1885–1985)

Years Name Full or part time Contribution to department

1885–86 Mary Foster Part time Established the department1886–90 Grenville Cole Part time Left to a full-time appointment at

Trinity College, Dublin1890–1920 Catherine Raisin Full time Established research and teaching

and separated geography1921–56 Leonard Hawkes Full time Introduced annual field trips1956–77 Basil King Full time Provided an analytical approach

to geochemistry and structuralgeology

1977–85 Alec Smith Full time Oversaw the amalgamationwith Royal Holloway College

Fig. 12. The Principal, art professor and science staff of Bedford College, 1903.

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Bonney of ‘some microscopic slices of rocks’ in1898 (Anon. 1898).

However, Mrs Morton Sumner’s bequestensured that not only the teaching continued butthe curatorial side of geology was covered too.

Until this year, Bedford College has been entirely without any-

thing which could reasonably be styled a museum, but the gener-

ous bequest of the late Mrs Morton Sumner, has suddenly raised us

from extreme poverty in this respect to comparative affluence.

(Dale 1901)

The extent of the bequest must have seemed enor-mous to those studying geology. From bare wallsand cupboards they now had a ‘small Japanesecabinet containing slides’ as well as three cabinetscontaining specimens of rocks.

In 1901 Maggie Dale encouraged others to comeand see the delights:

In various cabinets and cases lining the walls of the North Lecture

Room is to be seen a large and beautiful collection of mineralogi-

cal and crystallographical specimens.

She goes on to say:

Among the finest specimens which are displayed to great advan-

tage in a handsome hexagonal crystal case, we notice in particular

a splendid opal, an emerald, a diamond and other precious stones

still embedded in their native ores. In the small cabinet next to this

are gold and silver ores, a gold nugget, and two drawers full of

small and delicate mineralogical treasures.

It is small wonder that the study of geologyincreased with such a magnificent set of specimens.

However, this situation changed. An importantletter from Catherine Raisin, to Miss Tuke, dated24 March 1916, when redundancy seemed immi-nent, gives her thoughts and opinions on the situ-ation, as well as outlining her work on the

curatorial side. It is worth quoting parts in full.Perhaps it is worth remembering that, at thispoint, Catherine Raisin is 61 years old and has alifetime of experience of Bedford College. Herprime concern is the teaching collection and thegeological specimens held by the college.

I have to ask the Council if they will consider the arrangements

which may be made in the future for the care of geological speci-

mens. Doubtless modifications cannot take place until the war is

over, but possibly a decision as to the general arrangements

could be reached. It seems to me that certain provisions of Mrs

Morton Sumner’s bequest might be applied with more advantage

to the college. The will states that the objects were bequeathed

‘in order to form a collection or museum’. A museum always

demands a curator and the special fund bequeathed by Mrs

Morton Sumner for a custodian would provide this. As Head of

Geology department, I have carried out, as far as time allowed,

the duties of curator of the geological specimens. But only a

small part of the work has been accomplished. And I cannot

presume that any future holder of the post will give as much

time as I have done. Yet I have not prepared for the general

museum collection more than an extremely partial and incomplete

catalogue, nor can I keep pace with alterations, which are necess-

ary. I have succeeded in getting numbered and listed some parts of

the collections for the ordinary Elementary and Final pass courses,

but the collections for the advanced work are not catalogued, nor

any of the special series of specimens.

She then goes on to list the duties of the curator indetail, including dusting and preparing catalogues.This attention to detail was present in all herwork, whether academic, administrative orresearch.

New laboratories for geology

If the first turning point was the legacy from MrsMorton Sumner, the second was the establishmentin 1897 of new laboratory rooms for geology andbotany. A quote from the Bedford College Londonmagazine shows the relief felt by the geology andbotany students.

The new rooms are light and airy looking on to the gymnasium on

the East and to Baker Street on the west . . . The laboratory has

been provided with new ‘Swift’ microscopes which are greatly

appreciated now that the initial difficulties as to getting them out

of and into their cases have been overcome. (HBS 1897)

A quote for 1898 from the Bedford College Maga-zine further reiterates the gratitude felt.

The hearts as well as the backs of the Geology & Botany students

were gladdened this term by new tables and chairs in their lecture

room replacing the old desks. This room has also now been fitted

with some new cabinets of drawers and cases which are beginning

to be occupied with specimens.

They also now increased the number of geologicalmaps. For the 1906/7 session a part-time demon-strator was appointed, Miss Gibson, who wasshared between the botany and geology

Table 5. Bedford College: leaders of the botanydepartment (1872–1948)

Years Name Title

1872–91 A. W. Bennett Head1886–1908 Catherine Raisin Lecturer then

head1908–16 Ethel Thomas Head1919–48 William Neilson Jones Head

Table 6. Bedford College: geology and botanysalaries (1895 to 1907)

Date Amount

1895–96 £1981899–1900 £4051906–07 £447


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departments at £180 per annum, and a juniordemonstrator at £50. By the following year MissGibson had moved to botany and two lecturerswere appointed to geology: Miss E. N. Thomasand Miss Agnes Robertson. Miss Gibson resignedin June 1907 to take up a full-time teaching pos-ition. She was replaced by Miss Thomas. ByNovember 1907 Catherine Raisin had decided thatto run two departments was not beneficial to thecollege and she handed in her resignation for thebotany position. The council responded andpassed a resolution to the effect that:

Miss Raisin’s resignation of the lectureship in Botany be accepted,

and the thanks of the Council be conveyed to Miss Raisin for her

admirable conduct of the department during the past twenty-one

years.

They then offered her the Morton Sumner lecture-ship as a two-thirds appointment with a guaranteedincome of £283.6.8d per session from Easter 1908.By March 1909 however she again writes to theCouncil:

The department of geology is almost the only science in the

college without any assistance . . . Help is much required for the

arranging and labelling of specimens, all of which has at

present, to be done by myself.

She asks for a demonstrator for one half day a weekat a fee not exceeding £5 (Raisin 1909). This isgranted.

In 1910 there was a further call for demonstra-tors to help with the running of the departmentand the laboratories. The department had 14 appli-cations. They decided to appoint two: Miss IdaSlater from Newnham College, Cambridge(Fig. 8), and Miss Bowen-Colthurst from Ireland.Their wages were £30 part time, and £100 fulltime. This was the same as the lecturers only 20years earlier (Table 6). The importance of the pos-ition, or more likely the lack of other opportunities,is shown in the range of applications they had fromNewnham College, Oxford and Dublin, UniversityCollege and Durham.

Later, in 1913, a new building housing a geologylaboratory, map room, museum and research roomscame into being. This led to an increase in the pro-vision of demonstrators in the department. Theperson that oversaw the move and educationalimprovement brought about by these developmentswas Catherine Raisin. The problem of laboratoryassistance was obviously contentious but vital forthe work to be completed. The curriculum at thattime is shown by Irene Lowe’s timetable in 1914(Table 7). She taught for 14 hours: 2 hours of lec-tures and 12 hours of practical, for which she waspaid £200.

Natural History Society

The growth in the number of science students atBedford College during the 1890s led to the estab-lishment of the Natural History Society. Whilethis could not and did not fulfil the same role asthe Sedgwick Club in Cambridge, which was inter-collegiate, it did allow the students to meet sociallyand enjoy additional benefits, such as field excur-sions and lectures. The students themselves hadlobbied for such a society.

This wish at last resulted in a general meeting of students, held on

Monday November 21st when Miss C.A. Raisin, DSc. was unan-

imously voted into the chair . . . It was said that such a Society

would supply a long-felt want and that it was very desirable that

students should be encouraged to take an interest in subjects

outside their college curriculum, to observe the facts of Nature

for themselves, and gather knowledge directly from them. They

should take an interest in the progress of science of the present day.

Miss Raisin pointed out that such a Society would help students to

realise the unity of knowledge, and add to their interest in Nature.

But its greatest value would depend on the bringing forward of bits

of real knowledge, not got up entirely from books, but based on

observations of Nature, made in the field and open air. This side

of scientific work is in great danger of neglect in these days of

minute investigation in the laboratory, though not by the most

eminent scientists – such as Darwin, Wallace and Muller.

(Quoted from the records of the Secretary, Eleanor Pearse)

How true this statement is today, when fieldwork ison the decline and the bigger picture is often lostalong with the holistic approach to study.

The success of the Natural Science Society, as itbecame known, is evident in the events which it ran.Catherine Raisin gave a presidential address, quotedin full in the Bedford College London Magazine, on‘Natural sciences versus physical sciences’. Hereshe explores the benefits of teaching that naturalsciences have over the physical sciences: Q1

Imagining a country walk over chalk hills and through woodlands

as an illustration, the President suggested some of the many obser-

vations in plants and animals and stones which might be made.

Then hypotheses on interesting problems would arise, and

careful experiments be made to establish or refute them.

She then gives examples of how this could happenin the classroom.

Thus the Natural Sciences should be of use in schools in directing

attention to all the various facts of nature, but also in yielding a

training as severe and as exact as that supplied by the Physical

Sciences.

She is training the teachers of tomorrow to look atthe value of field observations for school children,something we tend to neglect today.

The outside fieldtrips were also valuable learn-ing experiences.

The work of this Society belongs more to vacation than to term

time. Unfortunately the weather during the Christmas vacation

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was such that even the most enthusiastic and omnivorous collec-

tors could hardly carry out their noble resolutions. However,

enough specimens have been forthcoming this term and we hope

for better luck at Easter.

After each meeting, specimens of natural materialswere shown, including rock and fossil samples.These small extracts from the society sections ofthe Bedford College London Magazine show howactive and influential this society was in helpingthe teaching of all the natural sciences includinggeology. Catherine Raisin’s name comes up con-tinuously when reading the minutes of the NaturalHistory Society which shows the influence thatshe exerted.

Catherine Raisin (1855–1946)

Catherine Raisin played a crucial role in the devel-opment of geological education at Bedford Collegefrom 1886 to 1920, as can be seen from the fore-going sections. She grew to become a significantrole model and so it is necessary to examine thecontext of her background and upbringing.

Catherine Alice Raisin was born on 24 April1855 in Camden New Town, in the county of

Middlesex, just outside London, the youngestchild and only daughter of Daniel Francis Raisinand Sarah Catherine Woodgate. Her mother,unusually at that time, was 45 years old and herfather was employed at the Inner Temple as a pan-nierman (Burek 2003b). Catherine was educatedat the progressive and pioneering North LondonCollegiate School, where she stayed on as ateacher until she was 20 years old.

From an early age, Catherine had an interest ingeology, a debt she owed to Sir Charles Lyell‘who’s Principles of Geology was one of the earliestbooks to arouse my enthusiasm’ (Raisin 1893a). Atthe age of 18 years, she attended classes at Univer-sity College London and studied geology andmineralogy, the subject that was to become herown research area.

By 1878, London University opened its doorsmore widely to women (Burek 2002 Q1) and CatherineRaisin attended, emerging in 1879 with a pass in theintermediate exam. She returned the following yearto complete her degree, studying under ProfessorT. G. Bonney and attending Thomas Huxley’s zoo-logical lectures at the Royal School of Mines. Herinterest in female education was highlighted

Table 7. Irene Lowe’s teaching timetable in 1914 (taken from the staff notes in the Bedford College archive)

TIME TABLE OF COURSES OF INSTRUCTIONGiven by Miss Irene Helen Lowe

At Bedford College for Women (University of London)(State in each case whether lecture or practical work)

Hours atwhichlecturesare held

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

11 Stratigraphypractical for 1stand 2nd yr passstudents

Igneous Mineralogypractical 1st and2nd yr students

Igneous PetrologyPractical 1st and2nd yr students

Stratigraphypractical for1st and 2nd yrpass students

12 Stratigraphypractical for 1stand 2nd yr passstudents

Igneous Mineralogypractical 1st and2nd yr students

Igneous PetrologyPractical 1st and2nd yr students

Stratigraphypractical for1st and 2nd yrpass students

2 Crystallography &MineralogyPracticalIntermediate

Crystallography &MineralogyLectureIntermediate

3 Crystallography &MineralogyLectureIntermediate

Crystallography &MineralogyPracticalIntermediate

4 Crystallography &MineralogyPracticalIntermediate

Crystallography &MineralogyPracticalIntermediate


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during this time when she set up the SomervilleClub, a discussion group for women in 1880,which soon had over 1000 members in London(Edgell 1945). Catherine was just 25 years old. Itwas after this that her belief in equality of educationbecame stronger. In 1884, she received her BSchonours in geology/zoology as top UniversityCollege geology graduate. At the age of 38 yearsshe received the Lyell Fund from the GeologicalSociety of London and in 1989, aged 43 years aDSc, becoming only the second woman ever toachieve this.

At Bedford College she was the first full-timehead, established teaching and research ingeology, and was instrumental in the formation ofa separate geography department (Page & Smith2001; Burek 2003b). She cites the War as givingan impetus to the study of geography as well asthe introduction of geography into the teaching cur-riculum and offers financial help.

I will be willing to contribute £50 a year for the three years to a

guarantee Fund if that could be raised to cover the cost if increased

fees were not obtained in sufficient amount. (Raisin 1916)

The increase in the number of students (Fig. 13)reflects the growing status of Bedford Collegeduring the time of Catherine Raisin. Whileobviously not all the students were in geology, thescience department grew substantially, as isshown by the following quotes:

. . . as the large number of students makes the room almost too

crowded for complete comfort. In fact if all the science classes

continue to increase in size as they have done this session

[1897], we shall soon overwhelm the art students in numbers, as

we have already done in general activity. (HBS 1897)

In 1915: Q3

the numbers in the Department of Geology as compared with

other science subjects and with the same subject in other

Colleges in the University. In the latter respect the department

compares favourably with those of the other Colleges.

(Bedford Committee 1915)

Thus her future as a role model was ensured.Figure 13 shows the number of students at

Bedford College. The bold lines indicate the timeCatherine Raisin was there. Q1This shows a steadyincrease from about 120 to well over 500 by thetime she retired in 1920.

She was to become a role model as a teacher, asa student, as an administrator and as a researcher.

Role model as an academic. Catherine Raisin’swhole academic career was spent at BedfordCollege, London, where she become the firstfemale head of department for both the geologyand botany departments, a taxing administrativeburden which impinged on both her teaching andher research (Burek 2002). She is listed in the‘Present staff of Q18Bedford College 1894’ as a It is atestament to her flexibility that, under geology andphysical geography, she is listed in the BedfordCalendar as teaching both First and Second Classes(Levels):

The First Class lectures cover

† The building up of rocks and the sculpturing of the Earth’s

surface.

† Description and classification of rocks and their materials.

† Some account of the successive Geological Periods, including

the modifications in their physical geography, and in the life

forms which characterise them.

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

01845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920

Year

Nu

mb

er o

f S

tud

ents

Fig. 13. Bedford College: number of students (1849–1923; after Tuke 1939).

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The First Class practical work covers

† Mineralogy and Petrology – The principal types of minerals

and rocks are examined in hand specimen, and in a large

series of sections for the microscope.

† Stratigraphy – is illustrated by geological maps of different

districts, from which sections are drawn showing the succes-

sion of the strata.

† Palaeontology – A collection of the most important fossils is

available for Student’s work and these type specimens are

examined and described.

Some visits to collections at the Geological Museums, and some field

excursions will be arranged if possible during the session. Papers

will be occasionally given for practice in answering questions.

These classes will meet the requirements of the BSc Examin-

ations. (Bedford College 1894).Q1

This curriculum will appear familiar to many geol-ogists of today.

The Second Class contained

More detailed study of Petrology, British Stratigraphy and

Palaeontology. Some account of foreign geology and the growth

of continents.

The majority of this was taught by CatherineRaisin with occasional help and led to a very fullteaching load, which led Catherine to comment ‘Iam actually teaching nine half days in the week’(Raisin 1909).

However, she was admired not only for her aca-demic research but also her pioneering attitude tofemale education. In a letter to Miss Calkin on herresignation as vice principal in 1901 she states:

The true ideal of a University standard must be kept in view. This

will be for women (as in the older universities it has been for men)

to encourage the desire to search for knowledge for its own sake.

(Raisin 1901a)

She fought hard for her female students andcolleagues to win their rightful place in higher edu-cation as either researchers or lecturers. Her gener-osity was legendary. She sometimes paid wages outof her own pocket and set up funds as academicprizes. This culminated in legacies at her death in1946 of:

† a £300 annual prize to be awarded by thegeography department of Bedford College,which she had helped financially and personallyto set up,

† a £500 bequest to be used for the benefit of non-smoking students,

† £200 to the “Headmistresses Association theinterest to be applied for an annual lecture onthe duty of thrift”.

† £300 to the National Society of Non-Smokers acontroversial legacy that made the headlines ofthe London Times.

Her own career contained many Milestones, whichare shown in Table 8.

Catherine Raisin died from cancer aged 90years, after a pioneering and role-model lifeshowing what determined women can achieve in amale-dominated profession.

In order to evaluate her status as a role modelseveral different types of role models will beexamined.

Role model for student life: work hard and playhard. Catherine Raisin played an active role incollege life, as shown from the Bedford CollegeLondon Magazine (HBS 1897).

In 1891:

Miss Raisin is President of the Debating Society for the second

time.

In 1893:

Miss Raisin is now giving a very interesting course of lectures on

the ‘Ancient Volcanoes and Glaciers of North Wales’ illustrated

by means of the lime-light lantern.

In 1897:

Students are indeed grateful to Miss Raisin for the consideration

that she has shown them in the arrangements of the timetable

and especially for her sympathy with the devotees of hockey –

the more so as this necessitates two nine o’clock demonstrations

and a nocturnal lecture.

Also, in 1900:

The Natural History Society continues we are happy to say in [an]

increasingly flourishing state. I think we should all fully recognise

that the happy state of affaires is almost entirely due to the energy

and kindness of the President Miss Raisin, without whom the

Society would soon I am afraid languish and die. (Anon. 1900)

And in 1901, very grateful response to a popularlecturer when she resigned her nice presidency:

All have appreciated the kindly and active part which Miss Raisin

has taken in the social life of the college. Her loss will be most

keenly felt by the residents, for they know her best and will miss

her repeated kindness. We hope it will not be only the geology

and botany students who will see much of Miss Raisin in the

future. (Anon. 1901)

Role model as an administrator. Her role as anadministrator was recognized early. In 1898 Cathe-rine was offered the post of vice principal, whichshe accepted in a letter dated 11 June 1898.

I have to thank the Council for the trust which they are willing to

repose on me. I appreciate the responsibility which I am undertak-

ing. (Raisin 1898)

However, Catherine started to feel that it detractedfrom her teaching and research and she tenderedher resignation in 1901. But by that time she hadmade her mark.

Above average height with a striking profile, she looked what she

was: a strong personality. Neither colleague nor students could

lightly disregard her opinion on college matters. Her earnestness


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and sincerity were always beyond question, even when one dis-

agreed with her point of view. A quote from a colleague.

(Edgell 1945)

She had respect and deference from her peers.

Dr Raisin’s complete devotion of her time and energy was out-

standing. Her attention to details of departmental organisation

and her interest in the work and careers of students in the

Geology department were unsurpassed while the firmness of her

convictions and her outspoken expression of them made her

throughout the many years of her connection with Bedford

College a great force in College affairs. (Bedford Council,

reported in Crook 2001)

By 1920 she had been appointed an examiner forthe special intermediate exam for the Universityof London in geology along with one of herformer students and subsequent demonstrator,Miss Irene Lowe.

Role model as a teacher. Catherine Raisin wasa model teacher. She was affectionately knownas ‘the Raisin’ or more (surreptitiously) ‘TheSultana’ (Hawkes 1946). This concern for herstudents and her teaching ability is shown in manydifferent ways. In 1890 there were no petrologicalmicroscopes but by 1898 she had amassed 1100fossils, 118 mineral specimens, a new laboratoryand a £500 grant for equipment from the LondonCounty Council.

In 1915, in a letter to Miss Tuke, she states:

I have felt on recent occasions that I have never lectured better in

my life.

Also in that year she offers:

to the college a scholarship for Miss Jerram of £50 a year for two

years with the condition that she will take geology as one subject.

(Raisin 1915)

Then in 1916 she offers to contribute £50 a year tointroduce a geography assistant lecturer to help withthe geography curriculum during wartime.

There are many further examples throughout theBedford College London Magazine, which startedin December 1886, of her generosity to students,

and her own personal correspondence demonstratesher acknowledged teaching ability.

Role model as a researcher. It was while an under-graduate that she developed an interest in microscopicpetrology and gained a love of fieldwork. Both wereto become her research interests. Catherine Raisinpublished over 22 journal articles, mostly on meta-morphic facies (Raisin 1887, 1889, 1892, 1901a),igneous rocks (Raisin 1888, 1891, 1893b, 1897a;Bonney & Raisin 1894) and the petrology ofserpentines (Raisin 1892, 1897b; Bonney &Raisin 1899, 1905). She was recognized as aleading expert on this last subject, often cooperatingwith her mentor Professor T. Bonney at UniversityCollege (Burek 2004). Most of her important papersare listed in the references. Indeed her first paper, in1887, on the metamorphic rocks of south Devon,was read to the Geological Society of London byProfessor Bonney, not by herself, as women werenot normally allowed into the meetings. It is inter-esting to note here that, in a role reversal, shetended to do most of the fieldwork and togetherthey did much of the laboratory analysis work andwriting, which he readily acknowledges:

I am bound to state that, though I have been once or twice on the

ground since 1880 (when my paper was written) the whole of the

laborious field-work for the present communication has been done

by Miss Raisin, but that we are jointly responsible for the examin-

ation of specimens and the interpretation of results. (Bonney &

Raisin 1899)

She thus travelled widely, which was unusual atthe time for a woman, undertaking fieldworkabroad as well as attending conferences overseas,such as the International Geological Congress inToronto in 1913. In Figure 14 she is seen sittingwith Rachael Workman, later to become LadyMacRobert. She was the first woman to beawarded money from the Lyell fund from the Geo-logical Society of London (in 1893) for her work.However, like her first read paper, she could notparticipate in person. Women did not attend orbecome fellows until 1919, 26 years later.

Table 8. Catherine Raisin’s Q15‘milestones’

Dates Achievements

1875 The first woman to study geology at University College1890 The first woman to become Professor of a science department in Bedford College

and head of a geology department1893 The first woman to receive the Lyell Fund1898 The first woman to become Vice Principal of a College1898 The second woman to receive a DSc. from London University1907 The first women to be appointed Morton Sumner lecturer and curatorJune 1919 The ninth woman to become a Fellow of the Geological Society

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She also worked on the microcrystalline for-mation of chert in Jurassic rocks and publishedan acclaimed paper in the Proceedings of theGeologists’ Association (Raisin 1903). It was hercareful field observation and meticulous petrologicalmicroscope laboratory work, which won her theadmiration of her peers and students. It is significantthat she was present at the centenary celebrations ofthe Geological Society of London, one of the fewwomen geologists invited in her own right.

Except for a representative of a Belfast College, I was the only

woman among the delegates and many would have regretted it if

they had not included some representative of women geologists.

(Raisin 1907)Q1

Catherine Raisin had the ability to ask questionsthat others could not (Burek 2003b).

What will happen to my collection when I retire? (Burek 2003a;

Raisin 1916)

Who is going to continue the curatorship of the collection?

I might, at last, have looked forward to devoting time during

the next four or five years, as I would wish, to some of my

many specimens. But the Council have negatived [sic] this possi-

bility. (Raisin 1915a)

Why is geology not taught in schools?

When do I have time to do research?

No other lecturer, holding as I do, that it is an essential for a

college post, that research work should be carried on, would

have such work interrupted first, by a struggle to maintain

Fig. 14. Catherine Raisin at the International Geological Q16Conference in Toronto in 1913.


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for many years two departments of the college, and then,

secondly, when that extra burden was laid aside by the necessity

of planning rooms and moving and arranging collections. Not I

think would any other lecturer be likely to give to this last men-

tioned duty such an excessive amount of time as I have

given . . . Much additional work has been laid upon me by the

war. (Raisin 1915b)

Why do I get only one-year contracts?

I greatly regret that they have not allowed me the hope of retaining

my appointment for the term of five years permitted by Statute.

(Raisin 1915a)

Why are we so overworked and underpaid?

All these questions are as relevant today as theywere over 100 years ago.

All Catherine Raisin’s research students, IreneLowe, Helen Muir Wood and Doris Reynolds,came towards the end of her career at BedfordCollege (Table 9) but she had established a goodfoundation for teaching and research at a difficulttime for women in higher education.

Emily Dix

Another strong role model originating fromBedford College was Emily Dix (1930–1947).After graduating from Swansea, she took up herposition in 1930 against strong opposition. Sheworked closely with Leonard Hawkes. She wasrecognized as both an excellent teacher andresearcher in the area of palaeobotany. Her storyand contribution has been told elsewhere and willnot be elaborated on here (Burek 2005; Burek &Cleal 2005).

Doris Reynolds

Doris Reynolds, the granite expert and later wife ofArthur Holmes, was one of Catherine Raisin’s laststudents at Bedford College. Her contribution is ela-borated elsewhere in this volume. Catherine Raisinis remembered by her most famous student, DorisReynolds, as:

not only a stimulating and enthusiastic teacher, who worked

ungrudgingly to promote their interests, but also as a generous,

brave and sympathetic woman whom they loved. (Reynolds 1945)

She further recalls, in 1960, when receiving herLyell medal from the Geological Society, the sig-nificant contribution that she felt Catherine Raisingave:

It was Catherine Raisin who first interested me in geology, and

from whom I inherited my love for petrology; I owe very much

to her long memory and unbiased teaching. (Reynolds 1960)

Raisin was a true role model.

Destinations of women geologists from

Bedford and Newnham Colleges

An analysis of the destinations of graduates fromthe two institutions is difficult to gauge. Teachingis a top destination for many students, as wouldbe expected. Other suitable professions openedto women geologists included journalism, factoryinspection and writing. Figures for BedfordCollege can only be determined for the wholegroup of graduates but those specifically identifiedas having studied geology are included inFigure 15.

A summary of destinations for the graduates of1904 shows the importance of the new sanitaryhealth course, and many girls went into this areaor become factory inspectors Q4(Table 10).

A very great number I am glad to say have married and gone out

some of them to far countries.

Of the 8 factory inspectors 2 are our old students.

It was slightly easier for those from NewnhamCollege, Cambridge. The records have allowed adetailed table of destinations after graduation tobe built up (See Figure 16). As expected, the1878–1939 data shows that the vast majority of stu-dents entered the field of education, sometimesteaching geology but always using the methodstaught by their mentors, until they married. Eventhen, some carried on in the area of governance,both at a local and national level. These ladiesthen formed the role models for the next generationof teachers and geologists. Q4

The importance of geology within geography asa school subject is highlighted in an article by Busk

Table 9. Catherine Raisin’s Q15teaching legacy

Name and Date Further degrees Achievements

F. J. Relf 1906 MSc (1922)Irene Lowe 1913 MSc (1920) Demonstrator, Bedford CollegeHelen Muir-Wood 1919 MSc (1920) DSc (1935) 1958 Lyell Medal Edited Brachiopoda section

of the Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology1960 OBE

Doris Reynolds 1920 MSc (1924) DSc (1937) 1960 Lyell Medal Petrology

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Fig

.15.

Bed

ford

Coll

ege:

Des

tinat

ions

geo

logy

studen

ts(1

886

–1932).


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(1895).Q1 Here Miss Busk details the school curricu-lum for 6–18-year-olds and shows where geologyis included. The curriculum for 6–9-year-olds wasrecommended by Geikie himself and he encouragedstudent-led questions. If we analyse the physicalgeography section, we find physical geology as anintegral part for junior school (10–13-year-olds)and some implied in middle school (13–16-year-olds), with volcanic action listed. It isexplicit in senior children (16–18-year-olds):‘physical geography . . . scientific explanation ofthe more difficult physical phenomena includingsome elementary geology.’ This need for geographyteachers to have an understanding of geology inorder to teach A-level equivalent geographyhelped to increase the number of students undertak-ing geology for a degree, as many of the school-leavers were destined to become teachers. EthelSkeat is a good example, as shown in the paper byBurek & Malpas (2007).

Discussion

Most women at this time of evolving highereducation for women went into teaching and servedas role models. It was a socially acceptable openingfor them. The difference between NewnhamCollege, Cambridge, and Bedford College, London,is obvious and has been explored in this paper bothfrom the point of view of location, clientele, lecturersand student destinations.

Bedford College, which, in 1849, was one ofthe first all-female colleges in the UnitedKingdom, explored and led the way for femalehigher education institutions, making mistakes andallowing others to learn from them. It establishedthat:

† Entrance requirements were advisable.† Female committees were unleadable because

women at that time had no experience suchwork, notwithstanding the fact that many dealtwith extensive households later in life.

† Male council members became frustrated at thelack of female professionalism.

† Lack of an efficient infrastructure led to thecollege missing the first application for grantsfrom the London Country Council.

† Having somewhere for day students to socializewas important and led to a better studentexperience.

† Up until 1894 all lecturers were part time andtherefore perhaps lacked the loyalty needed fora successful college community.

† All lecturers were called professors, which is adifference from the terminology of today.

Conclusions

Bedford College had struggled to set the precedentin London for the higher education of women acrossall subjects. However, the success of geology atBedford College owes no small debt to the perse-verance and dedication of one strong-minded anddetermined lady: Dr Catherine Raisin.

Newnham College provided a vast number oflong-serving teachers throughout the periodstudied and provided some valuable, albeiteccentric, role models. The importance of networksfor these women geologists cannot be understatedand the place that role models played is vital –and this remains the case today.

So what did it take to become a role model inlate Victorian and early 20th century times?

If we look carefully at Catherine Raisin andGertrude Elles, our role models are single, showstrong determination and are prepared to stand upfor their students. They would be called ‘characters’as indeed are most pioneers. They are intelligentwomen and have the respect of their peers in thesubject of their choice, although here the subjectis not important.

This study also points to other attributes. Perse-verance in the face of adversity, patience and asense of justice, while not solely the preserve offemales, also helped. Lapworth recognized this,as did both Professor McKenny Hughes andDr Marr.

The importance of good role models in edu-cation is adequately summarized by BaronessNancy Seear of Paddington in 1982 in the Houseof Lords:

Writer after writer mentions a particularly understanding teacher

or department head at a key stage in her career. Money also

helps so does physical toughness. These women are the survivors,

the fittest and the fortunate.

They are the role models for tomorrow’s gener-ations and carry a huge responsibility. So have all

Table 10. Bedford College: generic geology studentdestinations

†Author (Mary Evans)† Workers for public movements† Artists† Doctors† Factory & sanitary inspectors† Teachers & headmistresses† Married

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Fig

.16.

(a)

New

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geo

logy

studen

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ions

(1877

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(b)

New

nham

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studen

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ions

(1900

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teachers at all levels of education throughouthistory.

I would like to acknowledge the help of the archivists atthe Sedgwick Museum, Royal Holloway College, LadyMacRobert Trust and Newnham College, and all thepeople that aided me on my travels, especially KathLangley, Anne Esson, Jim Rose, Madeleine Montgomerie,Penny Durrell and my daughters, Frances and VeronicaCubitt, as well as my long-suffering son and husband.They have all helped me in my discovery of these forgot-ten women.

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