Other Collections

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), astronomers (William and John Herschel), geologists and biologists (Lyell, Darwin) as well as politicians and writers (Lord Brougham, John Stuart Mill, Josephine Butler, Maria Edgeworth). The papers are held at the Bodleian Library and the catalogue may be accessed online. Requests for visits should be addressed to the Bodleian.

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. Thanks largely to her efforts, the Egypt Exploration Society was set up in 1882 to promote and regularise archaeological excavation in Egypt.

A supporter of education for women, she left her books, papers and watercolours to Somerville along with a small collection of Greek and Roman pots. The books are not catalogued on the University union catalogue SOLO but a finding aid of her papers is available: ABE Catalogue. Her watercolours are not on permanent display but may be viewed for research purposes by appointment with the librarian.

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.

The collection includes photographs, letters, drawings and poems sent to Percy Withers and his family, and it was presented to Somerville by his daughters Audrey and Monica (Audrey and her mother Mary were both alumnae of Somerville). The collection has a finding aid: Percy Withers Collection (pdf 444kb), and the papers may be consulted for research purposes by appointment with the librarian.

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 written to her are preserved in the Somerville collection, which can be referenced here.

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 in the country. Her brother was the art critic and painter Roger Fry. Somerville holds a collection of her correspondence and papers, which can be consulted in the Index to Margery Fry Collection.

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 the most influential.

Somerville holds the research archive of her friend, biographer and literary executor Paul Berry. A summary of the available holdings is contained in the Vera Brittain-Paul Berry Index (pdf 16kb).  The papers are now housed in the Vera Brittain Room in the College archives.

Vera Brittain’s personal archive is held by McMaster University, Ontario.

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 second novel, The Constant Nymph, which catapulted her to fame in 1924. It was later dramatized, with Noël Coward in the lead role.

After her marriage in 1925, she turned her writing skills to plays, the most popular of which was Escape Me Never in 1934, starring Elizabeth Bergner. She returned to novel-writing at the close of the Second World War, and in 1953 won the James Tait Black memorial prize for Troy Chimneys. Her papers and correspondence were donated to Somerville College by her family in 2012 and are listed here: M Kennedy Finding Aid (pdf 26kb).

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 lost or gone into private collections. This recent acquisition is undergoing work to review, curate and catalogue the papers and to ensure that all items are held with the permission of owners and copyright holders. We have not therefore, provided a finding aid. However, please contact the archivist if you would like to know more about this collection.

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, and graduated with an M.A. in 1920. Afterwards, she lectured in London on Elizabethan theatre, becoming a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In 1937, she collaborated with an old friend and Somerville contemporary, Dorothy Leigh Sayers, in writing the play Busman’s Honeymoon.

Her most notable work, however, was The Lisle Letters, a collection of and commentary on the correspondence of Arthur Plantagenet. It took her 50 years to produce the six volumes, which were eventually published in 1981 on her 86th birthday. Somerville College has a collection of her papers, correspondence and photographs which are listed here: Muriel St Clare Byrne collection.