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To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Newnham College, the second Cambridge college to offer university education to women, its Council asked Alice Gardner to write this short history, published in 1921. Gardner (1854–1927) had gone up to Newnham in 1876: she had achieved the highest history degree in her year (though she was not allowed to graduate), and went on to a distinguished teaching career in Cambridge and Bristol. The book describes 'the idea of Newnham', which arose from supporters of female education in the mid-nineteenth century, the parallel trajectory of the founders of Girton College, and the small beginning of what became Newnham, with five students in a house overlooking Parker's Piece in 1871. Gardner takes the story up to 1914 (with a short epilogue), ending with the hypothesis, 'If Newnham ever becomes a College of the University …', a status eventually achieved in 1948.
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