The people who built JMU: exhibition from today

(A letter from Florence Nightingale to Fanny Calder, 1892)

Fanny Calder, described as a “Saint” by Florence Nightingale, is being honoured almost 100 years after her death.

The founder of the Liverpool School of Domestic Science, a LJMU forerunner college, Fanny is a key figure in the history of education in Liverpool.

She is being remembered along with James Gill, founding Principal of another of our founding institutions – the Liverpool Nautical College – in an exhibition starting today (Feb 12) at the Aldham Robarts Library.

The event – ‘Educational Pioneers: Fanny Calder, James Gill and the making of a modern university’ will run to the end of March.

Supporting the poor

Organiser Dr Wayne Turnbull, a researcher at LJMU said: “Fanny and James were educational pioneers from a different age and it is important that we remember the lessons and driving principles of their rich experiences.”

The Liverpool Training School for Cookery was set up in 1875, a result of Calder’s philanthropic work with the poor of Liverpool. She was driven by the principle of social service to the underprivileged through education and training and Florence Nightingale came to refer to her as ‘the Patron Saint of Laundry, Cooking and Health’.

Former naval instructor James Gill was appointed the founding Principal of the Liverpool Nautical College after a life working for the welfare and education of sailors. James campaigned tirelessly for better technical education in the maritime industry. His college moved from Colquitt Street in 1900 when it was evicted by the Cookery School!

A small selection of cakes from Calder’s course cookbooks will be available at the exhibition launch on February 12 – 4 - 6.30pm, when there will also be short introductions from Heather Thrift (Library Services), Roger Webster (Professor Emeritus) and Dr Turnbull and Lynne Wainwright.

The exhibition runs from 12th February to the end of March in the Lower Ground Floor of the Aldham Robarts Library.