Percy Withers (1867-1945) was a doctor, aspiring author and friend to some of the most renowned writers and artists of the interwar period. Born in Sale in Cheshire, his father (who died in 1897) had been in the silk trade. Two of Percy’s older brothers were general practitioners and he too went into medicine but he had literary aspirations, publishing his first volume of poetry in 1894. In 1896 he married… Read More »Percy Withers Collection
Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) was a novelist, journalist, feminist and campaigner. She came from a farming family in the East Riding of Yorkshire and her mother was the first women to serve on the East Riding County Council. Winifred Holtby came up to Somerville in 1917 to read Modern History but took a leave of absence towards the end of her first year to serve with the Women’s Army Auxiliary… Read More »Winifred Holtby Collection
Vivien Noakes (1937-2011) was an authority on Edward Lear and published her seminal biography Edward Lear, the Life of Wanderer in 1968. During the course of her exhaustive research into Lear, his life and his work, Vivien Noakes compiled a collection of over 1500 facsimiles of letters mostly written by Lear, some written to him, the originals of which are located around the world in over 100 different public and private collections. She subsequently published… Read More »Vivien Noakes Research Archive
Violet Paget (1856-1935) was an author and critic. Under the pseudonym Vernon Lee, she published over 40 volumes on aesthetics, the Italian Renaissance, music, critical theory and supernatural fiction. Born in France to English parents, Paget was the half-sister of poet Eugene Jacob Lee-Hamilton; he was a great influence on her and she adopted one of his names in her… Read More »Vernon Lee Collection
Provenance The collection was given to the college by Mill’s stepdaughter, Helen Taylor, in 1906. The donation was suggested by John Morley, MP, and negotiated on Helen Taylor’s behalf by her niece, Mary Taylor. For a detailed explanation of the collection, the research that it supports, how to access the collection and links to other useful resources, visit the dedicated John… Read More »John Stuart Mill Library
Philippa Foot (1920-2010) was a renowned moral philosopher. Born Philippa Bosanquet, her father was British and her mother was American, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland. Philippa Bosanquet had very little formal education but attained a place to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Somerville in 1939, and took a First in 1942. She was one of four philosophers (Foot,… Read More »Philippa Foot Collection
Emily Kemp (1860-1939) was a traveller, author and artist. She was born in Rochdale into a wealthy family (her father was a textile manufacturer) and she was one of Somerville’s earliest students, attending the college from 1881 to 1883. After Somerville, she studied medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women for two years and then spent two years… Read More »Emily Kemp Collection
Writer and campaigner, Vera Brittain (1893-1970) came up to Somerville College in 1914, shortly after the beginning of the First World War. She read English for one year before taking a leave of absence in 1915 to volunteer as a nurse. The war changed Brittain’s life; she lost her fiancé, her brother and her two closest friends. Traumatised by her experience, she… Read More »Vera Brittain and Shirley Williams Collection
The Library has a substantial collection of the literary and research outputs of Somervillians (current and past) fondly (if unofficially) referred to as the Old Somervillians Collection. To maintain a current and thriving collection of monographs, we welcome donations from Somervillian authors. Volumes cited in undergraduate reading lists, or which support the studies of our students, we will also purchase.… Read More »Old Somervillians Collection
Between 1992 and 1996 Laura Liswood interviewed 15 women world leaders as research for her publication ‘Women World Leaders’, and subsequent documentary of the same title. She went on, in 1996, to co-found the Council of Women World Leaders, of which she is now Secretary General. These 15 interviews, plus others carried out in subsequent years by Liswood, form the… Read More »Laura Liswood Archive of Women World Leaders