Special Collections A=Z

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 Collection

Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards (1831-1892) is celebrated as the ‘Founding Mother’ of Egyptology. She was a writer, famed in her lifetime for her novels which included Barbara’s History (1864) and Lord Brackenbury (1880). She contributed short stories to…

Margaret Kennedy Papers

Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) read Modern History at Somerville from 1915-19.  She was celebrated in the 1920s and 1930s for her novels, the most famous of which was The Constant Nymph (1924), her second published work. It brought her instant recognit…

Margery Fry Collection

Margery Fry (given name Sara Margery Fry, 1874-1957) was the descendant of a large and notable Quaker family of chocolate manufacturers and philanthropists. Her great-aunt was Elizabeth Fry, the 19th century prison reformer. Margery’s father was a hi…

Mary Somerville Collections

Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was a Scottish polymath: a mathematician, scientist, astronomer, geographer, geologist and artist. Her interest in science stemmed from a fascination with the natural world, which began when she was a child in Burntisland …

Muriel St Clare Byrne Collection

Muriel St Clare Byrne (1895-1983) was an Elizabethan scholar, dramatist and critic. She grew up in Liverpool and was educated at Belvedere School, before coming up to Somerville in 1914 to read English. At college, she was described as ‘an awfully ni…