Darwin College Archives

Darwin College was founded in 1965 by Trinity College, St John's College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, as the first all-graduate, and the first mixed-sex, college in Cambridge University.A brief history of the earliest years of the college, 'Darwin college, 1963-1966, and the University of Cambridge' was composed by the first Master, Sir Frank Young and printed for the college in 1967.

Part of the college site, Newnham Grange and the Old Granary, were occupied by the family of Sir George Howard Darwin, eldest son of the celebrated Charles Robert Darwin, and the family's life there is vividly portrayed by his daughter, Gwen Raverat, in 'Period Piece', first published in 1952 and still in print, for which her sister, Margaret Keynes, provided a companion volume, 'A house by the river: Newnham Grange to Darwin College' first printed in 1976, and re-printed in 1984.

The archives comprise administrative papers of the college, including records relating to the Darwin Lectures series, and eight boxes (1818-79) relating to the Beales family, once occupiers of part of the college site and a very small amount of material relating to the Darwin family.

Please cite as Darwin College Cambridge, Darwin College Archives, DAR