The question of women’s suffrage, and its particular relevance within the structures of the University of Oxford, had been a topic of frequent discussion in Oxford prior to the formal debate on the subject at the Oxford Union on 19 February 1880. The work of societies like the Oxford Women’s Liberal Association (OWLA) and the Women’s Emancipation Union, together with the activism of Florence Davenport Hill, a founding member of the Bristol Women’s Suffrage society in 1868 who had since moved to Headington, paved the way for the existence of groups like the AEW (and, later, the Oxford Women’s Suffrage Society). Founded in 1878, the AEW sought “to establish a system of lectures to be conducted with general reference to the Oxford examination of women over 18 years of age which had been introduced in November 1875 . . . The council and officers of the AEW laid down general rules for the conduct of students and their attendance at lectures, and made itself responsible for arrangements with tutors and payment of fees, and for the negotiations by which University Examinations were gradually opened to women” (Salter & Lobel). The organization’s work led to the founding of four women’s colleges: Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened in 1879, followed by St Hugh’s in 1886 and St Hilda’s in 1893. St Anne’s also originated as part of the AEW, catering for female students who lived with private families in Oxford while attending courses run by the society. The AEW counted the activist Eleanor Smith (1823–1896) among its founding members and Annie Rogers (1856–1937), Oxford’s first woman don, as a secretary. The AEW continued its activities until November 1920, when it dissolved itself as the University, by admitting women to membership, had made itself responsible for them.
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Twenty-three issues, octavo: comprising a total of 616 pages, the issues c .20–30 pp. in length. Original printed paper wrappers, sewn and wire-stitched as issued. Housed in a former library’s dark purple cloth flat-back box with metal latch closure, paper spine label reading “Australian Council for Educational Research”. Each issue complete, with stamps, shelf marks, and labels of the Education Department Library, latterly the Board of Education Library. Overall a scarce survival in very good condition. Shelf wear and creasing to wrappers, those for the earliest issue detached; rear wrapper for the 1909–10 issue torn but no loss. ¶ “The University of Oxford”, in H. E. Salter & Mary D. Lobel, eds, A History of the County of Oxford , vol. 3, 1954. £3,000 [124133] 6 BABUR; Annette Susannah Beveridge (trans.) The Bābur-nāma in English (“Memoirs of Bābur”). London: Luzac & Co., 1922 First edition in book form of this landmark version of the Bāburnāma , the earliest example of autobiographical writing in world literature, the diary of Zahīr-ud-Dīn Muhammad Bābur (1483–1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and descendant of Timur, translated into English directly from the original Chagatai Turkish, the spoken language of the Andijan- Timurids; complete sets are extremely uncommon. After study at the Unitarian-led Bedford College, the independently-minded Annette Beveridge ( née Akroyd, 1842–1949) went to India to start a school for Hindu girls. Her version of the Bāburnāma “consumed nearly twenty years of her life because of the research required on fundamental matters, such as establishing the authentic text and knowledge of a language then little known in the West . . the hallmarks of her work – the most complete of indices, and scrupulous footnotes and appendices on matters of fact – have made it invaluable for later scholars” ( ODNB ). Two volumes, octavo (208 × 137 mm). Contemporary moderate brown cloth, red leather labels. 5 half-tone plates and 2 plans (of Chanderi and Gwalior). Labels a little dry and slightly flaked, a touch of foxing to endpapers. A very good set, with a number of scholarly annotations between pp. 10 and 26 in vol. I, suggestive of someone proficient in Persian. £1,950 [141930]
4 ANTHONY, Susan B. The Status of Woman, Past, Present, and Future. [Boston: Arena Publishing Co.,] 1897 “The right protective of all other rights – the ballot” Original offprint, inscribed by the author at the head: “with a happy New Year Susan B. Anthony Rochester N.J. Jan. 1. 1898”. The Arena was a liberal journal founded in Boston in 1889, openly advocating for birth control, trust-busting, and the single-tax, and featuring articles on social problems including slums, child labour, and poverty. Anthony was requested by the journal, in the run up to the 50th anniversary of the Seneca Falls convention, “to state what really has come out of our half-century of agitation, and what is sure to come in the near future”. Anthony outlines the status of women at the time of the convention, and the positive changes since then, including far more professions open to women. Political changes to effect this had mostly occurred at the state level. She writes that their efforts must remain focused on a 16th amendment to the constitution to grant women the vote. Anthony is recorded as returning to her Rochester home in late 1897 after an extensive lecture tour through the West. Octavo, 4 leaves paginated 901–908, stapled. Housed in custom green cloth solander box, green morocco label to front. With 3.5 cm closed tear at head throughout, affecting inscription and lettering without loss; generally browned with some chipping and tears at extremities. Still, a sound copy of a fragile publication. £5,500 [162019] 5 ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN OXFORD. A run of 23 issues of its Report. Oxford: printed for the Association by the Printers to the University [6 issues with the imprint of Horace Hart; the last 5 with that of Frederick Hall], 1894–1919 the state of women’s education in oxford at the height of the suffragette agitation
A set of important reports published by the pioneering Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (AEW), containing a mass of historical information relating to the state of women’s education in Oxford. The earliest is dated 1894–95, the latest 1918–19; each spans from October of one year to the same month of the next; just two issues are absent from the run (1900–01 and 1910–11). The reports are scarce in any sequence. WorldCat and Library Hub trace runs at the London School of Economics and the British Library, and the society’s papers and publications are held in the Bodleian, deposited in the Library in 1975.
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