Nationality UK Occupation Tutor | Education Home tutored Parents Thorold Rogers | |
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Died 28 October 1937, Oxford, United Kingdom | ||
The confidence to try the impossible prof annie rogers hampshire college
Annie Rogers (15 February 1856 – 28 October 1937) was a promoter of women's education. She had been a child model for Lewis Carroll and had an offer of a university place withdrawn when it was realised that she was female. She proved that she was capable of achieving first class Oxford University degrees but her achievement was not formally recognised with a formal degree until 1920. Her work as a home tutor for women students led to her being recognised as a founder of St Anne's College in Oxford. She also wrote a history of women taking degrees.
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Life
Rogers was born in Oxford to James Edwin Thorold and Anna (born Peskett) Rogers. Her father was a campaigner for women's rights. She was the eldest of six children and the only girl. She had been a child model for Lewis Carroll in 1863. Carroll took pictures of her in costumes and wrote a poem which her sent with the photograph. The poem read
Rogers had an offer of a university place withdrawn when it was realised that she was female. She had come top in Oxford's examinations in 1873 and she was automatically qualified for a place at Balliol or Worcester College. As a consolation prize she was given six volumes of Homer and her place was given to the boy who had come sixth in the tests.
Roger's was able to sit degree-level exams in 1877 and 1879 giving her the equivalent of first class degrees in Latin and Greek and in Ancient History respectively. She was not formally awarded the Oxford degree until 1920 when the university lifted its ban on female students. In 1879 Oxford University opened its first halls for women students and Roger's, as the only woman with the equivalent of an Oxford University degree became a don (lecturer). She joined, and became secretary, of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in Oxford.
In 1893 she was teaching Latin at Oxford High School.
Notably she became to secretary of the Society of Oxford Home Students which would in time become St Anne's College, Oxford. She was a talented tutor to the women who were studying Classics at home and she is acknowledged as one of the founders of St Annes College.
Rogers died in Oxford in 1937 after being struck by a lorry. In her menory a garden was create and her history Degrees by Degrees was published in 1938. Fittingly the book records the history of degrees at Oxford University and its author had been vital to the early history.