Constance Naden's Unpublished Voice: A Manuscript Discovery

Talk by Clare Stainthorp

Constance Naden (1858-1889) is a rare example of a Victorian female polymath. She was an insightful poet, an accomplished philosopher, and a celebrated student at Mason Science College (which became the University of Birmingham in 1900). Three of her notebooks from the late 1870s have recently been discovered; they contain almost one hundred new poems as well as notes on religion, philosophy, and science, establishing for the first time Naden’s unpublished voice.

This talk will introduce these new additions to the Cadbury Research Library's Naden collection, showing how they chart Naden’s growth from precocious school girl to independent, free-thinking young woman between 1875 and 1879.

Refreshments will be served in the Chamberlain Seminar Room (Muirhead Tower) from 12:15 onwards.