Drawing on the diary Margaret Addison kept while travelling in Europe, Jean O'Grady makes available the experiences of the woman who would become the first dean of Annesley Hall at Victoria College. Addison spent most of 1900 travelling through Europe and Britain. Her reactions to various exhibitions and museums in London and Paris are vividly recorded, as are her experiences with British and European society. She describes her encounters with "old world" culture and history and reflects on its meaning for Canada. Her trip ended with visits to the local women's colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, visits that were important to her understanding of how the British experience could be adapted to benefit the women who would live in Annesley Hall, for which Victoria College was then raising funds. This never-before published diary, edited and annotated by Jean O'Grady, offers a remarkable insight into the cultural milieu of the women who shaped higher education in Canada. It will be invaluable for anyone interested in Canadian culture and the history of education, and offers an ideal of "womanliness" that is of interest to feminist theorists.

Margaret Addison's profile page

Jean O'Grady served as the associate editor of The Collected Works of Northrop Frye. She also worked for nine years as a post-doctoral fellow on The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, and is the author of the biography of Margaret Addison, the first dean of women at Victoria College.

Jean O'Grady's profile page

"It was a remarkable journey for a Canadian woman, and her diaries offer a fascinating insight into women's higher education at the turn of the century." Johanna Selles, Lecturer, Yale University.