{"id":2611,"date":"2016-09-22T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/?p=2611"},"modified":"2016-09-22T12:44:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T12:44:13","slug":"steps-towards-equality-in-new-college-library-class-photographs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/2016\/09\/22\/steps-towards-equality-in-new-college-library-class-photographs\/","title":{"rendered":"Steps towards equality in New College Library Class Photographs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A guest post by Chloe Elder, New College Library Special Collections Digitisation intern<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

From the depths of\u00a0New\u00a0College Library\u2019s archives, a selection of class photographs from 1857 to 1930 has been digitised and uploaded to the Open Books website, accessible at openbooks.is.ed.ac.uk<\/a>. The photographs show the students and staff of New College\u2019s past, each of whom make up a part of the School\u2019s long history. You may recognise, for example, Principal Robert Rainy, who lends his name to the College\u2019s Rainy Hall, sat front and centre of every photo during his time as principal from 1874 to 1900. And behind Rainy and succeeding principals stand rows of students, ascending the same courtyard steps that today welcome over 400 undergraduate and postgraduate students to the School of Divinity.<\/p>\n

\"New

New College Library Class Photo Winter Session, 1923-1924<\/p><\/div>\n

Not unlike most colleges and universities before the late twentieth century, New College had a male-dominated student body. But while I was scanning photograph after photograph of men in suits, the hem of a skirt caught my eye. Two women sat in the front row of students in a class photograph for the 1923-24 academic year. Five women stood among the group of students in the year following. And women continued to appear in class photographs thereafter.So, who were these first ladies of New College? I used the University\u2019s Historic Alumni database, accessible at collections.ed.ac.uk\/alumni,<\/a> to find out.<\/p>\n

\"Hewat\"

Elizabeth Hewat (centre)<\/p><\/div>\n

I chose at random \u201cMiss E.G.K. Hewat,\u201d shown wearing a hat and gloves in the front row the \u2018Winter Session, 1923-1924.\u2019 The database indicated that this was Elisabeth Glendinning Kirkwood Hewat, who attended New College from 1922 to 1926. Provided with her full name, a little more research quickly revealed that she was an influential missionary, historian, ecumenicist, and, not least, a life-long advocate of women\u2019s equality in the Church of Scotland. Her PhD Thesis is now kept in the Special Collections at New College Library, and available digitally via the Edinburgh Research Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth

Elizabeth G.K. Hewat, Comparison of Hebrew and Chinese wisdom, as exemplified in the Book of Proverbs and the Analects of Confucius. New College Theses 1934<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, almost a century after that photo was taken, New College is a pioneer in women\u2019s equality. \u00a0Over sixty percent of undergraduate students and one third of academic staff are women. And in 2014 the School of Divinity was the first Theology and Religious Studies department in the UK to be awarded a Bronze Athena SWAN award<\/a>, recognising the School\u2019s commitment to promoting gender equality.In September 2016, two teaching rooms were renamed to honour the inspirational female theologians, Elizabeth Templeton and Marcella Maria Althaus-Reid. Their names now stand alongside Rainy\u2019s as permanent fixtures of the school\u2019s foundation.<\/p>\n

And though times have definitely changed since the days that Miss Hewat and her colleagues studied and worked, we can see that the staircase of New College\u2019s courtyard is still the best place for a photoshoot.<\/p>\n

\"Women

Women of New College 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

For more information about women\u2019s equality and history at New College, see http:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/divinity\/quick-links\/equality-diversity\/ged-divinity<\/u><\/a> and http:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/divinity\/news-events\/latest-news\/rooms-renamed-in-honour-of-two-inspirational-femal<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Chloe Elder, New College Library Special Collections Digitisation Intern 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian – Divinity<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A guest post by Chloe Elder, New College Library Special Collections Digitisation intern From the depths of\u00a0New\u00a0College Library\u2019s archives, a selection of class photographs from 1857 to 1930 has been digitised and uploaded to the Open Books website, accessible at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[199,4],"tags":[19,224,130,226,185,225],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42UaT-G7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2611"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2636,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611\/revisions\/2636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/newcollegelibrarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}