author

Alice Gardner

1854–1927

A pioneering English historian, she built her reputation on clear, thoughtful studies of late antiquity and Byzantium while also helping shape the teaching of history for women in Britain. Her life linked serious scholarship with the early story of Newnham College, Cambridge, and university history in Bristol.

1 Audiobook

A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge

A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge

by Alice Gardner

About the author

Born in Hackney on April 26, 1854, Alice Gardner was an English historian and teacher. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she excelled in history; in 1879, she and Sarah Marshall placed ahead of the male students in the history tripos, an achievement that stood out at a time when women still faced major barriers in higher education.

Gardner went on to teach in Plymouth and at Bedford College before returning to Newnham to lead its history department. During the First World War she worked at the Foreign Office, and in 1915 she took charge of the history department at the University of Bristol, later becoming a reader there. Her career shows how closely scholarship and educational reform could be tied together in this period.

Her books include Synesius of Cyrene: Philosopher and Bishop (1885), Julian: Emperor and Philosopher (1895), Studies in John the Scot (1900), Theodore of Studium: his Life and Times (1905), The Lascarids of Nicaea (1912), and A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge (1921). No suitable verified portrait image could be confirmed from the sources reviewed, so no profile image is included.