Although until now virtually unacknowledged in the field of women’ education, Anne Jemima Clough was active throughout her long life in the field. Among other positions, she held the position of principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, for more than a decade, from 1880 until her death in 1892. But in spite of her prominent position, her achievements were overshadowed by her more visible and vocal contemporaries in higher education, such as Emily Davies and Josephine Butler. Nevertheless, she was always a loyal and tenacious follower and an uncomplaining worker. In a subdued way she lived and laboured fervently for the furtherance of women’s education. Quietly, and with remarkably little encouragement or guidance, she pursued and finally realized her dream, a dream that would at last allow her to help make education accessible to all women.
In this volume I have compiled, edited, and annotated most of Anne Jemima Clough’s unpublished papers. In addition to transcribing her diaries, or notebooks, I have incorporated chronologically into the text some examples of the voluminous amount of correspondence she wrote and received during a long life filled with activity The Anne Jemima Clough.papers will not only provide raw material for scholars studying the women’s movement during the nineteenth century, but they will also be a useful and engaging read for all students and scholars of the women’s movement, education, Victorian feminism and gender studies.
