Our department is pleased to announce a new addition to the MGC collection, courtesy of a generous donor. The archives and special collections team have received a blazer, tie and photographs from a time when the donor’s great aunt attended the Maria Grey, Women’s Teacher Training College between 1940-41.
Maria Grey College was founded in 1872 as a teacher training college for women. It was named after Maria Grey, a prominent advocate for women’s education and suffrage. Over the years, the college expanded its curriculum and became coeducational in the 1970s. The archives for Maria Grey College are held by Brunel University Archives and Special Collections due to the merger of Maria Grey College, Borough Road College, Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic to become the West London Institute of Education, later forming part of Brunel University in 1997. The archives serve as a valuable resource for researchers interested in the history of women’s education and the development of teacher training in England.
This acquisition is a unique and valuable addition to the BFSS collection, with its unusual colour and design making it an interesting and useful resource for research and exhibitions. The photographs provide an insight into life at Sheffield Hall residences in the 1940s and will be of great interest to those studying this period.
We aim to make this new acquisition available to researchers and the pubic once they have been added to our catalogue. We are grateful to the donor for their contribution and look forward to sharing this exciting new addition soon.
