Other Collections
Somerville College is privileged to own a number of special collections of national importance, as well as the archives that contain the official records of the college from its earliest times to the present day. While many of the collections are not yet available to search independently, finding aids have been provided for many in their descriptions below.
View our Visiting the Archives page to find out how to view items in these collections.
Amelia Edwards
Amelia Edwards (1831-1892) was a writer, traveller and Egyptologist whose passion for Egypt (reflected in her best-selling book A Thousand Miles Up the Nile) sparked an interest in all things Egyptian in England in the late nineteenth century…
Margaret Kennedy
Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) was a British novelist and playwright. She attended Somerville College in the years 1915 to 1918, studying Modern History. She began her career as a writer with the historical work A Century of Revolution (1922), yet it was her best-selling…
Margery Fry
Margery Fry (1874-1958) was Principal of Somerville for five years between 1926 and 1931. She is better known for her work in the field of penal reform, becoming the first secretary of the Howard League for Penal Reform and being appointed one of the first women magistrates…
Mary Somerville
The college is fortunate to have been given Mary Somerville’s personal, business and working papers which together form a fascinating reflection of her huge network of friends and acquaintances. The collection contains letters from mathematicians (Laplace, Fourier)…
Muriel St. Clare Byrne
Muriel St. Clare Byrne (1895-1983) was a prominent historian and researcher who specialised in the Tudor period. She attended Somerville College from 1914-17 and studied English. She later became an assistant tutor in English at the College in 1919…
Percy Withers
Withers (1867-1945) was a doctor and occasional writer, who accumulated a circle of illustrious friends during the course of his life, including AE Housman, Max Beerbohm, Paul Nash, Lascelles Abercrombie, Gordon Bottomley, Walter de la Mare and Robert Bridges…
Vera Brittain
Vera Brittain (1893-1970), the writer, pacifist and feminist, is perhaps most famous as the ‘voice of the Lost Generation’ of World War One through her autobiographical work Testament of Youth – one of the first accounts of the Great War from a woman’s point of view, and undoubtedly…
Vernon Lee (Violet Paget)
Violet Paget (1856-1935) was a writer who published more than 40 volumes on aesthetics, Italian renaissance, music, critical theory and supernatural fiction. She corresponded with a wide circle of friends from the literary, music and art worlds and over 2500 letters…
Vivien Noakes/Edward Lear
Somerville alumna Vivien Noakes was a world authority on Edward Lear and over many years built up an impressive research collection covering his life and works. The collection includes copies of many of Lear’s letters including some that have been subsequently…