UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

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Photographs relating to the University of Cambridge's denial of degrees to women. Two large-format photographs of the crowds gathered on King's Parade in Cambridge, depicting the public's reaction on the day the university voted to continue denying women degrees.Although women were permitted to study at Girton and Newnham (the two women's colleges, founded in 1869 and 1871), they were not formally awarded degrees; this was despite the fact they sat the same exams as, and in many instances outperformed, their male peers. After months of debate, on 21 May 1897 the university voted to continue this arrangement, sparking celebrations and demonstrations.One of the photographs depicts a banner draped from Gonville & Caius lettered "Get you to Girton Beatrice, get you to Newnham: Here's no place for you maids", banishing Shakespeare's outspoken female character to the women's colleges. Both photographs depict effigies: one is of a woman suspended above Trinity Street and another is of a "new woman" cyclist in bloomers suspended from a window above Bowes & Macmillan Bookshop, now the University Press. The latter effigy was decapitated that evening. "These photographs brilliantly capture the spatial politics and literal and metaphorical viewpoints of the day. The Senate House as university space, the mixed crowd outside the railings, every window and rooftop packed with people. There were other photographers on the scene, including large format cameras on the roof of Great St Mary's a

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