Girton Library holds Archival which are an important resource in the study of women's history, and particularly in the history of women's higher education. The collections also include material on nineteenth and twentieth-century feminism and women's social history. On-line access to the catalogue of the collections is via Janus, the union catalogue for archives in Cambridge. More information about the scope and extent of our collections can be found in the Outline Guide to the Archives at Girton, but a first point of entry for researchers might be through the thematic list of Subjects for research.
As the first residential college in England for the higher education of women, Girton's institutional history recounts the national history of women's higher education. The Archive collections hold the records of the earliest meetings where Emily Davies and others first floated the idea of a College for women and records have been kept consistently since the College's foundation in 1869. In the 1970s the College went mixed, but continued its pioneering ethos of equal opportunities. The archive records reflect this history in terms of both the Colleges institutional records and the personal papers of former members and individuals associated with the College. These personal papers include, for example, nineteenth and twentieth-century writers, artists, social reformers and compaigners, as well as personal papers from men and women who chose various professions subsequent to their Girton careers. Records also take the form of photographic and sound archives, and the latter form part of a research project. The University and Life Experience Project was originally set up in conjunction with the University of Sussex. A new phase is planned for 2010-12 to publish the data and its associated material on the web. The Archive also hold the institutional records of a few related organisations, such as The Society for Promoting the Training for Women.
More information about how the collections have been brought together can be found in the custodial history.
If you are coming to Girton to use the Archive, you will need to make an appointment. Contact details are given below and you will need to know our conditions of access. Information on copyright, reprography and publication is also available.
| Conditions of access | Copyright and reprography | Custodial history |
| Outline guide | Personal papers | Subjects for research |
Contact Details:
Ms Hannah Westall, Archivist, Girton College, Cambridge, CB3 0JG
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 338897 Fax: +44 (0)1223 339890
E-mail: library@girton.cam.ac.uk
