Manuscript lecture notes and artwork.
[Education] King, Elizabeth Thomson. Manuscript lecture notes and illustrations. London: 1866.
8vo.; 114 manuscript pages, including illustrations; marbled boards; half morocco.
Manuscript journal of lecture notes with hand drawn sketch maps, in the meticulous hand of Elizabeth Thomson King, author, editor, painter, early activist for women’s rights, and niece of Sir William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. Beautifully illustrated with 9 hand-drawn maps, 3 of which are watercolored, ranging in size from small in-text drawings to a double-page hemisphere chart. One of the maps illustrates the newly found Albert Nyanza lake. Together with an original contemporary photograph of Sir Samuel White Baker, loosely placed alongside notes from a lecture he gave.
A unique volume, used two-fold inversely by subject, recording King’s lecture notes on historical geography, including the possibility of transiting a Northwest Passage – the subject of much speculation at this time – and colonial discovery in the Dark Continent, including a lecture by explorer Samuel Baker. In the second part of the volume she records notes of lectures on church history.
The lectures were delivered at King’s College in London, who allowed women in the audience from as early as 1840, largely through the efforts and inspiration of F.D. Maurice, Professor of English Literature and History, as well as Theology. As such, King’s College one of the first providers of higher education for women. (Along with other members of staff at King’s, in 1846 Maurice founded Queen’s College on Harley Street, mainly for the education of future governesses.)
The title labels affixed to both front and rear covers reveal that King was a full-time student. Apart from special cases like King’s (apparently), The University of London did not allow full time female students until 1878.
Geography
The first part of the volume comprises 84 pages, is labeled, “Geography: Part of Michaelmas Term 1865, Lent Term 1866, and Easter Term 1866,” and features an elegantly illustrated and inscribed title page which reads, “Elizabeth T. King Geography.” This section includes notes on lectures regarding the Northwest Passage and the yet unattained North Pole, including a two-part map showing the progress of north polar exploration; six pages are devoted to Arctic voyages, touching on the discovery of the Behring Strait, the search of a Northwest passage, early nineteenth century expeditions of Ross and Parry, Sir John Franklin and finally Sir Robert McClure who was credited with the discovery of the Northwest Passage by sea in 1851. The final commentary exudes hope for further expeditions “with the purpose of reaching the North Pole.” (The Northwest Passage would not be truly conquered by sea until 1906 when Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen completed a three-year voyage in the Gjoa, forty years after this manuscript was penned. On 6 April 1909 Robert Peary claimed to be the first person in recorded history to reach the North Pole.)
Further notes document a lecture by Sir Samuel White Baker, recounting his expeditions to the Nile tributaries and his discovery of Albert Nyanza Lake. Hydrographical lectures include the Yangtse and Tarim rivers in China, some discussion on Macao (Macau) which was then a Portuguese colony; a sacred river in Turkestan; Germany’s Rhine; former rivers flowing between Lake Aral and the Capsian Sea such as the Syr-Darya; and the Nile Valley. Early charting of the world is examined, and beautifully illustrated with 3 large watercolour maps, one portraying a Homeric World perspective, one being the world as depicted in the 14th century by Sanudo the Elder of Torcello, and finally a northern hemisphere Ptolemic map circa 120 AD. Lectures on the history of charting the globe continue with El Edrisi, the discovery of America or the New World, and leads into Arctic exploration. Finally, twenty-nine pages provide a succinct historical sketch of the foremost
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