KING'S COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0100 KCLCA KW, KWA, K/HOS, KAS/AC11
Held at	: King's College London College Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/archivespec/ ›
Full title	: KING'S COLLEGE FOR WOMEN
Date(s)	: 1878-1939
Level of description	: Collection (fonds) View subfonds/series records
Extent	: 29 boxes, 5 volumes, 2 files
Name of creator(s)	: King's College London | Ladies Department King's College London | Women's Department King's College for Women | London King's College London

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Supported by G C W Warr, Professor of Classics at King's College London, and the Principal Alfred Barry, from 1878 lectures for ladies were held in the old town hall in Kensington. Attendance outgrew the lecture rooms, which in 1879 were moved to a house in Observatory Avenue, Kensington. From 1881 moves were made to found a ladies' department of King's College based on this initiative, with the necessary statutory powers obtained by an Act of Parliament which received the royal assent in 1882. The Ladies' Department was inaugurated in 1885 at no 13 Kensington Square. It was to be administered, under the Council of King's College, by an executive committee. The principal of King's College was head of the department, with a lady superintendent (from 1891 known as the vice principal) as his deputy in Kensington Square. The department's function at this period was not to prepare its students for definite professional careers, but to give them a taste of a liberal education. Under Lilian Faithfull as vice-principal (1894-1907) the department developed the character of a university college. In 1898 the application for the admission of women to the King's College associateship was granted by the Council. From 1902 the department was known as the Women's Department, and students took examinations for London University degrees and Oxford or Cambridge diplomas. A movement for university education in home science, although controversial among educationists, resulted in courses beginning in 1908. At that period the policy of the department, with the concurrence of the Delegacy of King's College and the Senate of the University, was to establish on a new site in Kensington a complete university college for women. Under the King's College London Transfer Act (1908), in 1910 the Women's Department was incorporated in the University of London with a distinct existence as King's College for Women. Owing to pressure on space from increasing numbers, nos 11 and 12 Kensington Square were added to the College's premises in 1911-1912. In 1913 a special delegacy for King's College for Women was constituted by the Senate of the University of London. However, in 1913 the Haldane report of the Royal Commission on the University of London unexpectedly recommended that the Home Science Department alone should be developed in Kensington. On a new site at Campden Hill, Kensington (the Blundell Hall estate), originally intended for the whole of King's College for Women, buildings for the Household and Social Science Department (after 1928 King's College for Household and Social Science) were begun in 1914 and went into use in 1915. The conversion of King's College to a co-educational institution by the absorption of King's College for Women was agreed in 1914 and the arts and science departments moved from Kensington Square to the Strand in January 1915. King's College for Women in the Strand remained constitutionally a separate legal entity, since the Transfer Act of 1908 could only be altered by Act of Parliament, but for all practical purposes King's College for Women became an integral part of King's College. The number of women students began to increase rapidly and in 1921 King's College Hostel for Women opened in Bayswater, subsequently expanded from time to time by taking in adjoining houses.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records, 1878-1939, of King's College London Ladies' and Women's Departments and King's College for Women from inception, and including material postdating absorption by King's College London in 1915. Comprising minutes, 1878-1928, including the Executive Committee of the Ladies' Department, 1878-1902, Committee of Management of the Women's Department, 1902-1910, Committee of Management of King's College for Women, 1910-1913, King's College for Women Delegacy, 1913-1915, Board of Principal Teachers of King's College for Women, 1910-1928, King's College for Women Board of Studies for Home Science and Economics, 1908-1914, and various finance committees from 1891 and other subordinate committees; agendas and draft minutes, 1885-1915; accounts, 1878-1916, comprising annual balances, 1878-1885, termly balances, 1889-1890, printed balance sheets, 1878-1905 (incomplete) with annual reports to the Committee of Management to 1887, comparative statements of income and expenditure, 1904-1916, printed accounts, 1910-1914, estimates, 1913-1915, and memoranda on estimates, 1914-1916; ledgers, 1890-1910, and journal, 1890-1896; cash books, 1890-1919; fees books, 1906-1919, and miscellaneous vouchers, receipts and bills, 1907-1914; warden's outletter books, 1910-1915; general and policy files, 1899-1919, on subjects including scholarships and prizes, courses, staff appointments, incorporation into the University of London, development of the college including establishment of the home science course, proposed amalgamation with King's College, and files relating to administration after amalgamation with King's College London in 1915, including proposed acquisition of a hostel for women; building and maintenance files, 1882-1917, including premises in Kensington Square; student address books, 1894-1917 and undated, most including details of courses being taken; record books, 1897-1918, with students' details; registers of attendance for various courses, 1909-1914; registers, 1878-1919, including exam class lists and lists of students; miscellaneous records, 1901-1914, comprising some student records and a manual of instructions for the Bursar; syllabi and prospectuses, 1878-1916; scrapbooks, 1888-1910, including lecture notices and press cuttings; rough notes summarising a course of lectures on hygiene and sanitation, 1913; printed ephemera, 1888-1923, with material postdating fusion with King's College in 1915, including historical sketch of King's College Ladies' Department, c1902, undated history of nos 11-12 Kensington Square, lectures, reports, prospectuses, and an appeal for the Home Science Department, 1914; material relating to King's College Hostel for Women, 58 Queensborough Terrace, Bayswater, 1921-1939, including minutes of the management committee, ledgers, cash books, wages books and inventory; 16mm film of King's College for Women staff and students, 1927-1928, with explanatory notes; entrance schedules for arts and sciences, 1914-1921, giving students' details; papers and correspondence, 1880-1924, on general administration, buildings and accommodation at Kensington Square and Bayswater, grants to the College, staff appointments, and transfer of King's College for Women to King's College and the future of the Home Science Department.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The records are arranged in the following series: minute books (Ref: KW/M); agendas and draft minutes (KW/AM); accounts (KWA/ACC); ledgers (KWA/L); cash books (KWA/CB); fees books (KWA/FB); warden's outletter books (KWA/OLB); general and policy files (KWA/GPF); building and maintenance files (KWA/BF); student address books (KWA/RAD); record books (KWA/REC); registers of attendance (KWA/RAT); registers (KWA/R); miscellaneous records (KWA/MISC); syllabi and prospectuses (KW/SYL); scrapbooks (KWA/SCR); lecture notes (KWA/LECT); printed ephemera (KWA/EPH); King's College Hostel for Women (K/HOS); 16mm film (KWA/TP); entrance schedules (KWA/E); papers and correspondence (KAS/AC11). References, however, are expected to change on recataloguing.

Conditions governing access:

Administrative and committee papers are closed for 30 years from the last date on file.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services, King's College London.

Finding aids:

Lists available in reading room at King's College London Archives.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

King's College London Archives holds records of the successor bodies of King's College for Women, which became Queen Elizabeth College.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: F J C Hearnshaw, The Centenary History of King's College London 1828-1928 (George G Harrap & Company Ltd, London, 1929), pp 312-18, 376-8, 438-42, 455-7, and Hilda D Oakeley, 'King's College for Women', in ibid pp 489-509.

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 2001