Abstract
BEDFORD COLLEGE, in York Place, Baker Street, which was one of the earliest institutions devoted to the higher education of women, is taking a leading part providing facilities for their instruction in science. Founded long before Oxford and Cambridge condescended to the “weaker sex” (which has since proved strong enough to attain to the highest place in the Classical Tripos), it is the result of the work of enthusiasts who would not admit the possibility of defeat. It has had to struggle not only against the inevitable difficulties due to its early foundation, but against the apathy of London. Provincial towns feel that their honour is involved in the success of their institutions. The Colleges for women at Oxford and Cambridge share in the picturesque surroundings of those old homes of learning. They attract attention and interest by their situation amid scenes and traditions of which the whole English-speaking race is proud. Bedford College has had no such advantages. London institutions are regarded as either Imperial or parochial—as too large or too small to interest its citizens as such. Bedford Square compares unfavourably with the “backs,” and it is impossible to regard York Place with that gush of emotion which “the High” sets free. Thus it is that, although Bedford College has been at work since 1849, and though one in every four of the whole number of women who have gained degrees of the University of London has been a student in its classes, the work of the College does not yet receive the meed of public appreciation which it has fairly earned. Bedford College is for women what University and King's Colleges are for men. It provides, within easy reach of all Londoners, an education which is tested by the severe standard of the University of London, and bears the hall-mark of success. One-third of its students are aiming at degrees, and their presence in the class-rooms, their work in the examination-hall, guarantees the quality of the teaching they receive to class-mates who do not intend to face the same ordeal. Science has for long been taught in Bedford College, but there has been a pressing need for better laboratories and class-rooms. These the Council has now provided. A new wing has been built, dedicated to the memory of the late Mr. William Shaen, who worked long and devotedly for the College. About £2000 is required to complete and fit up this building free of all debt, and Mr. Henry Tate, who had already given £1000 to the fund, has promised to supplement it by a like amount if the Council on its part can raise the other moiety of the deficit. It is too probable that this sum will only be obtained by an exhausting effort, but surely it is not too much to hope that the public may at last appreciate the importance of promoting the higher education of women in London. In a northern manufacturing town the money would be forthcoming in a week.
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The Laboratories of Bedford College. Nature 41, 279 (1890). https://doi.org/10.1038/041279a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/041279a0