DAVIES ((Sarah) Emily, 1830-1921, Feminist and Suffragist)

Fine Autograph Letter Signed in full to Miss Vernon thanking her for "all the trouble you are taking about the meeting. I was very glad to hear of the Soirée proposal. Miss Gaskell will have told you that Lord Lyttelton cannot take the Chair, & that I do not know of any other possible Lord. There is certainly none that we could ask to be Chairman, but we will keep a look out & persuade any one we can find to attend the meeting. I am expecting instructions from Miss Gaskell about asking Mrs Heywood. My impression is that the real effectiveness of a meeting often depends more on the energetic & judicious preparatory work, such as you are giving, & on its being well followed up afterwards, than on anything that the speakers can say or do ..." with a postscript that "The Bishop talked about Varlane (?) College in America, in reference to our College. It is an entirely different kind of thing. Mr Scott, the Editor of the Manchester Guardian, has paid a visit to the College & is prepared to write it up ...", Hitchin College, headed paper, 7th February no year but

Emily Davies was a pioneering campaigner for women's rights to university access. She is principally remembered as being the co-founder and an early Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, the first college in England to educate women. Girton college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies, Barbara Bodichon and Lady Stanley of Alderley as the first women's college in Cambridge. It was initially established in Hitchin, Hertfordshire with Charlotte Manning as the first Mistress.

Item Date:  1869

Stock No:  40032