A Short History of Newnham College, CambridgeGardner, Alice
History
A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge
Gardner, Alice
Newnham College
Besides the debating societies, each subject or group of subjects has
for many years had its meetings for reading and discussing papers
on Classical, Scientific, Historical, and many other subjects. Not
infrequently some distinguished man or woman from outside has been
invited to deliver a lecture.
The Choral Society began in the earlier days of Newnham, and long
enjoyed the devoted and very able direction of Dr. Mann, Organist of
King's College, and gave very successful concerts. The display of
musical talent in the College is anything but uniform. One year we had
a good orchestra of stringed instruments, and the same may occur again
from time to time. Meanwhile, a musical society, started in a much
humbler way by an industrious student who was desirous of "keeping up
her practice" and inducing fellow students to do the same and be ready
to play some piece to one another on Saturdays, has developed into
a considerable College club called after its foundress, The Raleigh
Musical Society. A good many students, too, have been members of the
Cambridge University Musical Society.
Astronomical interests have been cultivated in non-mathematical
students since the valuable gift of a telescope and small observatory
by Mrs. Boreham (daughter-in-law of the astronomer) in 1891. It was at
first placed on a mound to the south of Clough Hall, but when the view
from it was obstructed by the building of Peile Hall it was removed
to an open space at the far end of the College grounds. It was placed
under the curatorship of a mathematical scholar who had not only been
a high wrangler, but had had the advantage of having been brought up
in an astronomical atmosphere, Miss E. A. Stoney. Students with no
knowledge of astronomy were invited on certain evenings to see Saturn's
rings and Jupiter's moons. Their interest was attracted even to things
of the heavens which are visible to the naked eye. There was an
enthusiasm for "learning the constellations," instruction being given
by the expert to the ignorant. One night, when one of the mathematical
lecturers informed the students that the phenomenon was about to take
place described as "the Moon swallowing Jupiter," a large number of
students assembled on the lawn to watch the event. Happily it occurred
about 9 p.m. on a clear night. The act of swallowing was greeted by a
cheer--though whether the object cheered was Jupiter, the Moon, or the
lecturer who had given warning was not very clear. This little event is
mentioned as one of the many cases in which the common life of students
engaged in heterogeneous subjects has advantages of an educational as
well as of a social kind.
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