Confetti and fireworks, the remains of the protests opposing Newnham and Girton students’ membership of the University in 1897, are to be digitised by Cambridge University Library.
These fragments of paper tell the story of women’s long fight to be accepted at the University, and the bravery the College members showed.
In 1897, with Newnham College twenty years old, and seven years after Philippa Fawcett had received the highest marks in the Maths Tripos, Cambridge University took a vote that led to riots in the market place.
The Senate voted on the question of whether women should be awarded degrees – and, crucially, whether this meant simply offering women the title of the degree, or its powers, which would allow them to take part in the governance of the University.
Male students opposed to women’s membership of the University held demonstrations in the streets. The effigy of a woman in trousers on a bike was hung above Kings Parade, and later mutilated. After the vote took place, and women were defeated, male students overturned stalls in the market place. And someone, perhaps thinking of the historic significance of the day, gathered up fallen confetti and fireworks and stored them in a box.
After the shock of the 1897 defeat, Newnham College reacted with renewed determination, purchasing the freehold of the land from St John’s College in 1900: a sign that the College was here to stay.
In 1921, the relicts of the riots were donated to the UL. Tests will now be carried out on the materials, before they are formally photographed and digitised, and added to the University’s online archive.
Newnham College looks forward to celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2021 – proving those early Newnhamites were right to hold their ground.