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1903 · réf. 18010 — 1903. Association of Head Mistresses. List of Public Secondary Schools for Girls 1903 and 1905 records the geographic extent of secondary schooling available to girls in Britain during the early twentieth-century expansion of women's education. Founded in 1874 by Frances Mary Buss and other headmistresses of endowed and proprietary schools the Association developed from efforts to improve the standards and institutional position of girls' secondary education. These two successive lists arrange schools by county providing contemporary evidence of where public secondary education for girls was available and allowing comparison across localities and between the two publication years. Their dates follow three decades in which girls gained broader access to academically oriented schools and universities although educational equality remained contested; in 1897 Cambridge rejected a proposal granting women the titles of degrees followed by riotous celebrations by male undergraduates. Women were not admitted to full membership of Cambridge until 1948. Two pamphlets issued by the Association of Head Mistresses dated 1903 and 1905 each measuring 8.5 x 5.5 inches. Soft blue covers are printed "One Shilling Published by the Educational Supply Association 42 Holborn Viaduct E.C." Entries within each pamphlet are organized by county and identify public secondary schools open to girls at the time of publication. The format turns the changing institutional landscape of girls' education into a contemporary directory recording individual schools by place rather than describing educational reform retrospectively. Both front covers bear stamps reading "Board of Education Library" and "Supplied Public Service" each incorporating the royal crown; the back covers retain red "Board of Education Reference Library" stickers. These official library markings document their presence within a government educational reference collection. 1 Association of Head Mistresses. List of Public Secondary Schools for Girls. London: Educational Supply Association 1903. Arranged geographically by county the pamphlet enumerates secondary schools then available to girls and provides a contemporary reference point for the distribution of female secondary education at the beginning of the Edwardian period. Its Board of Education Library markings also preserve evidence of institutional reference use. 2 Association of Head Mistresses. List of Public Secondary Schools for Girls. London: Educational Supply Association 1905. Issued two years after the first pamphlet this updated county-by-county listing permits direct comparison of the provision of girls' secondary schools between 1903 and 1905. The directory appeared during the continuing expansion of educational opportunities that connected secondary schooling with women's increasing access to higher education; the University of London had begun awarding degrees to women on equal terms with men in 1878 while access elsewhere remained uneven. Textblocks tight bright and clean. Both pamphlets overall very good condition. The consecutive editions preserve a measurable record of girls' secondary education by county at a time when women educators and school leaders were establishing institutions capable of preparing girls for examinations professional training and higher education. unknown