We have noticed as one of the additions to the College in connection with the Pfeiffer Building a Combination Room for the Staff, including all women Lecturers and resident Fellows. Later on its functions were transferred to its present quarters, the room next the College Dining Hall--a pleasant room with two fireplaces and a door opening on the garden--the original Combination Room being made use of partly as a committee room, partly as a reading and coaching room for students.
Work among both students and past students had meantime been facilitated by the gift in 1898 of a well-designed library building, for which the College has to thank the liberality of Mr. and Mrs. Yates Thompson. The Library is admirably adapted to its purpose, with section recesses divided off by bookcases and conveniently arranged tables, while beauty of proportion, the excellence of the woodwork, and the elaborate mouldings on the ceiling (of the principal Printers' Arms of the sixteenth century) give it an artistic as well as academic character. When (1907) nearly ten years after its opening, its space proved insufficient for the books belonging to the College, the same benefactors most generously doubled it in size, providing staircases and a fine east window.
The supply of library books grew and prospered at least in proportion to the general progress of the College. Many of the original promoters were literary men and book-lovers, and their gifts and bequests, besides the money annually spent out of the College income, made the necessary extension just noticed necessary, and tended to make the College a more desirable place for old students--especially such as were engaged in educational or literary work--in which to spend part of the summer vacation. Some friends were anxious that the Library should have interesting books of a non-special character. Mrs. Stephen Winkworth, already mentioned, whenever she had enjoyed some new work of biography or general literature, used to send a copy of it for the Newnham Library. Mr. Coutts Trotter, Miss Clough's kind adviser in the early days, bequeathed the bulk of his books to Newnham College. The same was done by Mary Bateson, of whom we shall have more to say presently. There never was a time when there was not an influx of books of various kinds. Provision was made for a steady supply by the assignment to the Library Committee every year of a sum proportional to the number of students. Most books, on conditions, might be taken out for parts of the vacations. The Library Committee consists of representatives on the Staff of all the principal subjects studied and other lecturers, whose duty it is to submit the names of books required by the students whom they direct. The Library has thus been kept up to date, and has also continually been enriched by special gifts. Thus a Dante Library was formed in memory of Miss Jane Lee, already mentioned; a clock was given by a generation of students going down, the case being designed by one of them; guests gave books on their departure. The catalogues were carefully kept, and if any slackness in returning books was observed, great vigilance was used to recall them. The care of the Library was for many years in the hands of Miss Katharine Stephen.