BENSON, Professor Margaret Jane (1859-1936)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0505 PP26
Held at	: Royal Holloway, University of London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/archives ›
Full title	: BENSON, Professor Margaret Jane (1859-1936)
Date(s)	: 1871-1943
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 2 boxes or 0.02 cubic metres
Name of creator(s)	: Benson | Margaret Jane | 1859-1936 | botanist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1859; educated Bedford College, 1879-1880; gained BSc at University College London, 1891; Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge University, 1892-1893, gaining a DSc in 1894; Head of the Botany Department, Royal Holloway College, University of London, 1893-1922; Professor of Botany, Royal Holloway College, 1912-1922; Examiner in Honours Internal BSc, London; Member of Faculty of Science, University of London, 1903; Fellow of University College London; Fellow of Linnean Society, 1905; died 1936.

Publications: various articles in Annals of Botany.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Correspondence, 1892-1943, between Benson and various academic colleagues, mainly on subjects relating to botany, and the reading and publication of papers by women to scientific societies, notably with Professor Francis Wall Oliver, Professor of Botany at University College London, Professor Sir Albert Charles Seward, Professor of Botany at Cambridge University, and Dukinfield Henry Scott, President of the Linnean Society. Papers, 1871, 1906 and [1936] relating to Benson's death, including her childhood exercise book, 1897, given to Professor Elizabeth Marianne Blackwell, Head of Botany at Royal Holloway College, various copies of the obituary notice written by Blackwell, [1936], and material relating to a bequest by Benson to the Botanical Laboratory at Royal Holloway College, [1936]. Photographs, [1893-1922] of staff and student life at Royal Holloway College, including boating scenes, costume tableaux in the College quad, formal portraits of Benson in academic dress, and laboratories in the College.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Arranged in sections as noted in the Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Open to all registered users of the College Archives.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies may be supplied, subject to the condition of the original. Requests to publish original material should be directed to the College Archivist.

Finding aids:

Handlist available in the Royal Holloway, University of London Archives reading room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

No information at present.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The Royal Holloway, University of London Archives hold correspondence with Dr Emily Mary Berridge (PP27/1-2); Benson's staff file (RHC AR162/3); two letters regarding publication of theses in the papers of Hilda Murray (PP38/3); an obituary of Benson taken from the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1937 (RHC RF135/1); and photographs of Benson (RHC PH282/13-14). Letters are also held in the Royal Holloway College Library (Ref: Bridson, Natural History MS Resources 1980).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the AIM25 project.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with general International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Mar 2000