Competitive Examinations and the Culture of Masculinity in Oxbridge Undergraduate Life, 1850-1920

2002 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 544-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Deslandes
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
World War I ◽  
Periodical Press ◽  
The Public ◽  
Administrative Reforms ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Future Success ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
University Course ◽  
The University

As the primary means through which academic success was measured and professional credentials were established, competitive examinations for university degrees and civil service appointments became a frequently discussed topic among the Victorian and Edwardian elite in Great Britain. Students and dons (the term for college fellows with teaching and pastoral responsibilities) at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as a whole range of outside observers, regularly commented on the importance of these exercises during the seven decades that passed between the curricular and administrative reforms of the 1850s and the conclusion of World War I, years in which these ancient institutions achieved their modern form and functioned, in the words of Jan Morris, as “power house [s]” and “conscious instruments of Victorian national greatness.” In an 1863Student's Guide to the University of Cambridge, for example, J.R. Seeley, a famous Cambridge don and historian, celebrated the invigorating, youthful, and competitive nature of the Tripos (or Honors) examinations in a lengthy discussion of academic life: “Into these [examinations] flock annually the ablest young men … who during their University course have received all the instruction that the best Tutors, and all the stimulus that a competition well known to be severe, can give…. The contest is one into which the cleverest lads in the country enter [and] it may safely be affirmed that even the lowest place in these Triposes is justly called anhonour.” By the 1860s, when Seeley first penned these comments, competitive examinations had become, in the words of one contemporary observer, “matters of … much interest and importance not only to those whose future success in life depended upon them, but to the public in general.” Public interest was further fueled, throughout this period, by numerous articles in the periodical press that discussed and debated the general value of competitive examinations and by the regular publication of test results in widely circulated, national newspapers such as theTimes.

XLI. Observations upon some Celtic Remains, lately discovered by the Public Road leading from London to Cambridge, near to the Village of Sawston, distant seven miles from the University, by Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cambridge. Communicated by the Rev. Thomas Kerrich, M.A. F.S.A.

Archaeologia ◽  
1817 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 340-343
Author(s):  
Edward Daniel Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
The Public ◽  
The North ◽  
Public Road ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Temple

It is not attaching too high a degree of importance to the study of Celtic antiquities, to maintain, that, owing to the attention now paid to it in this country, a light begins to break in upon that part of ancient history, which, beyond every other, seemed to present a forlorn investigation. All that relates to the aboriginal inhabitants of the north of Europe, would be involved in darkness but for the enquiries now instituted respecting Celtic sepulchres. From the information already received, concerning these sepulchres, it may be assumed, as a fact almost capable of actual demonstration, that the mounds, or barrows, common to all Great Britain, and to the neighbouring continent, together with all the tumuli fabled by Grecian and by Roman historians as the tombs of Giants, are so many several vestiges of that mighty family of Titan-Celts who gradually possessed all the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and who extended their colonies over all the countries where Cyclopéan structures may be recognized; whether in the walls of Crotona, or the temple at Stonehénge; in the Cromlechs of Wales, or the trilithal monuments of Cimbrica Chersonesus; in Greece, or in Asia-Minor; in Syria, or in Egypt. It is with respect to Egypt alone, that an exception might perhaps be required; but history, while it deduces the origin of the worship of Minerva, at Sais, from the Phrygians, also relates of this people, that they were the oldest of mankind. The Cyclopéan architecture of Egypt may therefore be referred originally to the same source; but, as in making the following Observations brevity must be a principal object, it will be necessary to divest them of every thing that may seem like a Dissertation; and confine the statement, here offered, to the simple narrative of those facts, which have led to its introduction.

Karl Spencer Lashley, 1890-1958

1960 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 107-118 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Behaviour ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Public ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Large Audience ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The University ◽  
Made In

In July 1949 the Society of Experimental Biology and the Institute of Animal Behaviour together organized a Symposium for the discussion of a wide range of problems, neurological, physiological and psychological, in which the members of both groups were interested. The Symposium was held in the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. K. S. Lashley came to England for this meeting, and no member of the large audience who heard him describe how he had set out ‘In search of the engram’, and what its upshot had been, is likely ever to forget the tremendous impression that he made. After the public discussions one morning, I walked with him back from the Zoological Department to Corpus Christi College, where he was staying. The sun shone with unclouded brilliance, and when we reached the College Lashley, who seemed, perhaps, a little tired, sat himself down on the stone steps leading to the main gate, one long leg stretched out towards the pavement, with not a single care for the curious, and slightly shocked glances of some of the passers-by. We were talking, not about any intricacies of animal behaviour, but about sailing and the sea, which he loved. He told me something about his own boats, and journeys he had made in them; but more about longer and unconventional voyages in small tramp steamers which took a long time, wherever they were going, and called at ports little known to the big luxury vessels for which he had no use at all.

Conversations with Emeritus Professor Stroud Francis Charles (Toby) Milsom: A Journey from Heretic to Giant in English Legal History

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Dingle
Keyword(s):  
Legal History ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
London School ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
London School Of Economics ◽  
The University

AbstractLesley Dingle, founder of the Eminent Scholars Archive at Cambridge, gives a further contribution in this occasional series concerning the lives of notable legal academics. On this occasion, the focus of her attention is Stroud Francis Charles (Toby) Milsom QC BA who retired from his chair of Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge in 2000 after a distinguished career as a legal historian at the universities of Oxford, London School of Economics and St John's College Cambridge. His academic life and contentious theories on the development of the Common Law at the end of the feudal system in England were discussed in a series of interviews at his home in 2009. At the core are aspects of his criticism of the conclusions of the nineteenth century historian Frederick William Maitland, upon which the teaching of the early legal history of England was largely based during much of the 20th century. Also included are insights into his research methods in deciphering the parchment Plea Rolls in the Public Records Office, and anecdotes relating to his tenure as Dean at New College Oxford (1956–64) as well as associations with the Selden Society: he was its Literary Director, and later President during its centenary in 1987. Professor Milsom also briefly talked of his memories of childhood during WWII and his inspirational studies as a student at the University of Pennsylvania (1947–48).

scholarly journals Poisoning the Student Mind?: The Student Christian Movement at the University of Toronto, 1920-1965

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Gidney
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Student Culture ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Public ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
The Times ◽  
Student Christian Movement ◽  
The University

Abstract Historians have documented the interlocking nature of student culture and religious life in nineteenth-century higher education; in contrast, after World War I religion has generally been ignored, or portrayed as disappearing from the academy and broader life. An investigation of the Student Christian Movement, however, suggests that by combining liberal theology with left-wing politics it became an influential religious force on campus well into the twentieth century. Reflecting a fairly homogeneous student population, supported by faculty and the administration, and articulating the temper of the times, the SCM served as the public voice of religion on campus. Only in the 1950s, as new social phenomena emerged, such as divisions among Protestants, the rise of agnosticism, and the creation of secular political organisations, did the SCM begin to lose its cultural authority on campus.

Why I Chose History

1952 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-492
Author(s):  
Carlos E. Castañeda
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
World War I ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
World War ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The Public ◽  
The University

Back in 1916 the world was in the midst of World War I. When I graduated from high school in that year, the United States had not entered the great struggle yet. In the fall of 1917, I, registered in the University of Texas. There was as much, if not more, uneasiness and uncertainty among students as there is today. We were already in the war. No one knew how long it would last, nor when the draft call would come.With the lightheartedness of youth I chose engineering. In high school I had been good in mathematics, and everybody had said, “You are cut out for an engineer.” Dean T. U. Taylor of the Engineering School agreed, and I made a good record that first year. Engineering students in those days had to take public speaking and the public speaking teacher assured me the first day I came into his class that I would never make a public speaker. Time proved that if Dean Taylor was mistaken in his deduction as to my engineering vocation, the public speaking teacher was only half right.

scholarly journals XX. Elements of new tables of the motions of Jupiter’s satellites; In a letter to the Reverend Charles Mason, D. D. Woodwardian Professor in the University of Cambridge, and F. R. S. From Mr. Ri­chard Dunthorne

1761 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 105-107
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
The Public ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University ◽  
Made In ◽  
Jupiter’S Satellites

Sir, The public employment, wherein I am at present, and for several years past have been, engaged, not permitting me to make new tables of the motions of Jupiter’s satellites, according to the last: corrections I had (from a comparison of more than eight hundred observations) made in the places and orbits of those planets, I am at last persuaded to communicate, by your means, to the Royal Society, the elements of those tables, hoping they will prove no unacceptable present to astronomers.

Vision

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Blake ◽  
Carolin Crawford ◽  
Paul Fletcher ◽  
Sophie Hackford ◽  
Anya Hurlbert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Computer Vision ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
Colour Perception ◽  
The Public ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Theoretical Physicist ◽  
The University

Arising from the 2019 Darwin College Lectures, this book presents essays from seven prominent public intellectuals on the theme of vision. Each author examines this theme through the lens of their own particular area of expertise, making for a lively interdisciplinary volume including chapters on neuroscience, colour perception, biological evolution, astronomy, the future of technology, computer vision, and the visionary core of science. Featuring contributions by professors of neuroscience Paul Fletcher and Anya Hurlbert, professor of zoology Dan-Eric Nilsson, the futurist Sophie Hackford, Microsoft distinguished scientist Andrew Blake, theoretical physicist and author Carlo Rovelli, and Dr Carolin Crawford, the Public Astronomer at the University of Cambridge, this volume will be of interest to anybody curious about how we see the world.

The catalogues of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset

Antiquity ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (280) ◽  
pp. 377-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Thomspson ◽  
Colin Renfrew
Keyword(s):  
Public Domain ◽  
The Public ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

The beautifully illustrated catalogues of Lieutenant General Pitt-Rivers collections at Farnham have recently been presented to the University of Cambridge — where they will be in the public domain for the first time. The background to the collections and their catalogues is an intriguing story, showing the precision and detail demanded by Pitt-Rivers for his Farnham Museum. We are pleased to present some examples here, printed in colour and showing the range of the Victorian collector par excellence.

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