Once again, this has been a very busy week for the Project! The Oxford University English Faculty Library has very kindly given us permission to digitise a number of its papers relating to Anglo-Saxon matters: chief among these is the extensive pamphlet collection belonging to Professor Arthur Napier, and donated to the Library upon his death, and copies of Oxford University Old English exam papers dating back to the 1890s! As you can see from the preview below, some of these papers date back to the period when different examination papers were given for male and female candidates, reflecting the segregated teaching that took place during the period.
Page from 'Oxford University Examination for Women', 1889
Perhaps even more interestingly, as we have gone through the Napier collection we have found a surprising number of doctoral dissertations written by female scholars, including Alison Drake (Columbia, 1894), Constance Pessels (Johns Hopkins, 1896) and Josephine May Burnham (Yale, 1911). This may provide some interesting and previously unexplored material for those interested in the history and sociology of late 19th-century Anglo-Saxon studies.