Cultural Heritage
Cultural Heritage 2020 has been a challenging year for us all. On the 18 March 2020 we took the very difficult but necessary decision to close the People’s Portraits exhibition, the Lawrence Room, and the Archive and Special Collections to all visitors. At the time of writing they remain closed, with only the Archive and Special Collections open for a limited range of remote enquiries. We have greatly missed sharing our collections, interacting with our visitors, and simply enjoying the vibrancy that visitors bring to the College. However, we have continued to work both onsite and remotely, caring for and managing the College’s collections. The Archive now has a new catalogue and the first national lockdown proved an ideal time for data checking, editing and migration. We also decided to split the Curator post and Dr Liliana Janik (Fellow 2007) has now taken over as the Curator (Lawrence Room). New additions to the collections were also received, and we were delighted to accept amongst others: a bequest from Felicity Strong (née Ranger, 1954) of two untitled paintings by Abraham Manievich; a gift from Daphne Todd of her portrait of Simeon Barclay (Artist in Residence 2018–19); and a bequest from Beverly GriffinDougall (Fellow 1965) of a sculpture by the Zimbabwean artist, Luke Mugavazi. Image left: Bee box, Image top right: Hazel, Image bottom right: December moth As usual, the richness of our collections was showcased by the annual series of talks at the September Alumni weekend. However, thanks to the hard work and technical expertise of the Development Office, the 2020 weekend was a virtual event. Although this was not the same as seeing everyone in person, it was lovely to see so many faces on screen, and the Zoom format did allow us to enjoy new elements, such as studio tours. The recordings of all the events can be accessed here: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/events/ girtonline-roll-alumni-weekend Dr Gordon Barrett (Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and Politics, University
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Spring 2021
of Oxford) gave the Library talk, Dorothy Needham, China and the ‘Needham Project’. Dr Barrett explored Dorothy’s career, and how, as a committed internationalist, she went to China in 1944 to join her husband, Joseph. They went on to make two more trips to China in 1964 and 1972. Dr Barrett drew on sources from the Needham Institute, where Joseph Needham’s papers are held, and from Dorothy’s China diaries held in the College Archive, both of which have been digitised and made available on the Cambridge Digital Library (cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/). It was especially interesting to hear about
Dorothy’s experiences and insights into wartime China. Dr Augusta McMahon (Reader in Mesopotamian Archaeology, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Newnham College) gave the Lawrence Room talk, The Girton College eye-idols and the origins of urbanism in Mesopotamia. It was intriguing to learn more about these enigmatic eye-idols and Tell Brak where they were excavated, thought to be one of the earliest cities alongside Uruk. Dr McMahon explained that these figures, with their overly large eyes that were designed to ‘gaze’ at the gods, were probably made by
