Garden Party 2019

Garden Party 2019 The College organised a Garden Party on 21 September as part of events taking place this year to celebrate 40 years of achievement by women students, academics and staff. Over 250 people attended the event to which all members of College were invited.

The festivities included a drinks reception with afternoon tea, Pimms and a string quartet in the Fellows’ Garden, and an opportunity to view the exhibition “Women at Univ 1249-2019”. A string quartet featuring Sarah Chapman (2018, Chemistry) and Elsa Shah (2018, Music) played music by Mozart, Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) and Haydn.

The exhibition was curated by Dr Laura Varnam, Lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature, Dr Robin Darwall-Smith, College Archivist and Elizabeth Adams, College Librarian. The exhibition featured material from the College archives, demonstrating various roles women have played at Univ from benefactors to donors, librarians to college staff, as family members, wives of Fellows and Masters, businesswomen and writers. The exhibition was also open last week during the Open Doors weekend.

This was followed by a panel discussion in Hall with Dr Catherine Holmes, A.D.M. Cox Old Members’ Tutorial Fellow in Medieval History, Dr Robin Darwall-Smith and Dr Laura Varnam, titled: “Celebrating and Recovering the Histories of Women at Univ”, with many interesting and thoughtful questions asked by Old Members present.

The day finished with an Alumni Day drinks reception hosted by the Master. Baroness Amos, who will become Master of Univ upon Sir Ivor Crewe’s retirement in August 2020, was also in attendance.