Katharine Stephen was the daughter of the jurist Sir James Fitzjames Stephen and Mary Cunningham. She was a cousin of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Despite her father’s notorious anti-feminism, he accepted her determination to find employment and in 1886 she became secretary to Helen Gladstone, then a Vice-Principal at Newnham. Katharine became Librarian in 1888, presiding over and rejoicing in the College’s first purpose-built Library, the gift of Henry and Elizabeth Yates Thompson She served also as a Vice-Principal and was propelled forward into the Principalship in 1911 by her great friend, Blanche Athena Clough.
Katharine had to lead the College through the difficult years of the First World War, always taking the view that women could best contribute to war work by completing their training first. She retired in 1920. The common sense, unfailing good humour and rare unselfishness on which the members of Katharine’s family all drew heavily was also at the service of the College; and at her death B.A. Clough characterised her as ‘always gallant towards life’. The naming of the rare books room commemorates Katharine’s great contribution to the College’s outstanding library.
