Female icons to get a spot in the Trinity library... 280 years later!
THEY have been ladies in waiting... but sculptures of four remarkable women are soon to be di s pl a y e d in Tri ni t y College’s Old Library for the first time in around 280 years.
Forty marble busts are currently on display in the Long Room of the library – but they are all of men. It’s also the first time in over a century that Trinity has commissioned new sculptures for this prestigious location. More than 500 suggestions were considered, with four making the final cut.
Those chosen were the scientist Rosalind Franklin, the folklorist, dramatist and theatre-founder Augusta Gregory, the mathematician Ada Lovelace and the writer and pioneering women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.
‘Step towards diversity’
At the end of last year, students, staff and alumni were invited to make suggestions as to whose sculptures should be featured.
The nominations needed to pass two criteria: the subjects should be scholars, and they should no longer be living. They did not need to be graduates of the university and there was no restriction as to nationality.
The first works for this space were commissioned in the 1740s, soon after the library was finished, and the collection was gradually extended in the following years. No new sculptures have been commissioned since the 1880s and no additional sculptures have been installed since the 1920s.
The deciding panel was chaired by provost Patrick Prendergast, and included former registrars, the college librarian and academic and collections experts.
A statement from the university acknowledged that despite this new development, women will only make up 10% of the busts in the Long Room, and that it welcomed ideas about how best to r efl ect t he f ull diversity of academic achievement. Dr Prendergast said: ‘The Long Room in the Old Library of Trinity College Dublin is one of the most magnificent rooms in the world, visited by hundreds of thousands of people most years. ‘I welcome this initiative as a step t owards r eflecting t he university’s diversity in such a nationally significant location.’ Trinity will be hoping to avoid the recent controversy surrounding a statue in honour of Mary Wollstonecraft erected in London. Critics hit out at the memorial of the ‘Mother of Feminism’ by artist Maggi Hambling for its inclusion of a naked female figure.