Advancing by degrees, an exhibition capturing 800 years of university development, learning and student life, opens at Cambridge University Library tomorrow as part of the university’s 800th Anniversary celebrations.

Showcasing documents and images from the University Archives, the exhibition explores and illustrates the journey the university has made since a migrant band of scholars first reached the town in 1209 and established their studium, highlighting:

• The university’s origins – true and false – including the 1570 statutes given to the university by Elizabeth I.
• Medieval and modern learning, including notes and diagrams for lectures given in 1669/70 by Isaac Newton, his first as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (the post currently held by Stephen Hawking) and the earliest university exam papers, dating from 1801
• Cambridge’s pioneering scientific research, such as the letter in which William Bateson coined the term ‘genetics’ in 1905.
• The university’s worldwide reach, including exam papers submitted by a prisoner of war in Germany in 1944.
• The university’s enduring – if at times discordant - relationship with the town, co-operating, for instance, in times of plague but falling out over the university’s jurisdiction over many town activities. A 1568 account describes university proctors dispensing summary justice for breaches of law such as the sale of unwholesome goods at Sturbridge Fair. The prosecution and imprisonment of alleged prostitutes continued until the late nineteenth century.
• Student life – work, unrest and play: rules for dress from 1588, photographs of student occupation of the Old Schools in 1969 and a fracas with the university officials, and the challenge issued by Cambridge to Oxford in 1829, which inaugurated the famous Boat Race.

Peter Fox, University Librarian, said: “It is the sheer richness of the University Archives which have produced so wide-ranging an exhibition. Records survive from within 50 years of the foundation of the University to the present day, illustrating every aspect of University life inside and outside the classroom. From medieval statutes and accounts to modern photographs and plans, we have them all.”

The exhibition runs from 20 January to 20 June 2009 (closed 10-13 April inclusive) and admission is free.

Advancing by degrees is just one of the myriad events being staged by the University during its 800th Anniversary Year. Officially launched with a spectacular light show and bell-ringing event on January 17, this year will also feature a music concert in London, a winter light show and a special Footlights performance at the ADC Theatre.

This year also marks the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.
Cambridge University will hold the Darwin 2009 Anniversary Festival from July 5-10. The festival features a stellar line-up of speakers and panelists including Ian McEwan, Richard Dawkins and Sir David Attenborough.
Elsewhere, Christ’s College, Darwin’s alma mater, will hold a gala dinner on February 12, while the Fitzwilliam Museum will be home to ‘Endless Forms’, a unique look at Darwin’s impact on the visual arts, from June 16.
 

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