A Day Trip to Cambridge
By: Savannah Miller
Empire:
Cambridge has a strong connection to the empire because royalty or upper class citizens are who funded the development of Cambridge University. It was another way to show wealth and power among society. Putting your name on the college was essentially the entire point of funding the university. Examples of this include Peterhouse who was founded by the bishop of Ely, Pembroke college by the countess of Pembroke, King’s college by Henry VI, St John’s college by Lady Margaret Beaufort, Trinity college by Henry VII and the list continues. Through the funding of the university one could have the power to push their views on to administrators to spread to students. Henry VII had this power over students and administration with religious changes and its connection to students’ studies.
Gender:
Women were not admitted to all colleges until 1948 and finally given full membership to the university. Before this women were required to ask permission from the professor to take the class and then did not receive a diploma, they received a certification. They were also required to be chaperoned and could not attend a class alone. A women’s college, Newnham, was developed where women could be admitted into Cambridge before 1948. Newnham was placed on the outskirts of Cambridge to create distance between genders and keep the gap between women’s and mens rights. Women were not seen as worthy of a college education. A women’s role was to remain as a support to her husband and children. Newnhman still remains an all girls college today to honor and remember the fight for women’s rights in education.
Architecture:
Every college at Cambridge has a different architectural approach since they were built by different people. Each building reflects the time period it was built and tells a story about the founder. One common theme among the buildings is cheaper materials were used on the backs of building units facing the canal because only workmen transporting goods would view that side of the building. It would cut costs and reminded me of how in other parts of London the fronts and backs of buildings have different brick work. Specifically, Bath had several examples of miss match building materials. Ivy now strategically covers walls facing the canal.
Social class
Colleges were developed for the upper class to further their education. They would go from a public education and feed right into a specific college at Cambridge. For example, King’s college is known for being made up of Eton students for many years. King’s college also was seen as the most prestigious for a time and its students were waited on by students of other Cambridge colleges. There was a class system or a war between which college was the richest that still lingers today.
Influence of culture:
Work done at Cambridge affected the lives of everyone in England and around the world. That may seem dramatic but discoveries, research, writings, and the arts heavily influenced the culture. Cambridge student, Isaac Newton, publishes the fundamental principles of physics. Another student you may have heard of is Lord Byron who wrote satires and famous poems at Trinity. Charles Darwin, who wrote the theory of evolution, studied at Cambridge. JJ Thomson’s work with the electron was done at the University as well as John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton splitting of the atom. The discovery of DNA by Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin was done in Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge university too. These strides in education, research and discovery are what make Cambridge stand out as the second best university in the world.