3-078-239 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Miss Fawcett, of Newnham College, "Above the Senior Wrangler" in Mathematical Honours, University of Cambridge, 1890. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Owen. 'The advocates of the higher education of women - or, rather of their admission, equally with men, to the more arduous studies and intellectual exercises which are supposed to be part of education - have great cause to exult in the Class List of the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos...Miss Philippa Garrett Fawcett was placed by the Examiners above the Senior Wrangler of the year; implying that if she had been a member of the University, and so entitled to official recognition, it would have been their duty to pronounce her Senior Wrangler. At present the women students...have, strictly speaking, no connection with the University of Cambridge, and it is only through the courtesy of the Senate that the Examiners are allowed to set them the same papers as the men, and to announce what places they would severally have occupied had they been entitled to take academical rank. In spite, however, of this grudging and inconsistent attitude on the part of the University authorities, the male portion of the Cambridge students, in the case of Miss Fawcett, seem proud of the success she has won'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.