Identity area
Reference code
SJCR/SJCL/4/1
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 1888-2023 (Creation)
Level of description
Subseries
Extent and medium
10 files. 18 folders.
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Includes photographs, posters, correspondence, programmes, tickets, invitations, menu cards, committee documents and ephemera.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The original order was unfortunately destroyed over time by a series of moves and re-cataloguing. In the creation of this May Ball catalogue in 2016, the decision was taken to create a new intellectual arrangement of the collection, to enable greater access to the material by researchers. While efforts were made to record the former reference codes of these documents, it was not always possible to do this and in some cases, the former reference codes is no longer evident.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
A collection of May Ball-related material for the 1920-1923 may also be found in the personal papers of Eric Winch, held in the Special Collections of the St. John's College Library. The material includes correspondence, printed notices, menu cards and receipts. [see Winch 1/1/34-36].
For photographs of and the menu card for the 1898 Ball, see Album 25/24-27, also held in the Special Collections of the St. John's College Library.
Note
The First May Ball, or one of the earliest- it is impossible to be absolutely certain on this point - was in fact called the Lady Margaret Ball. A College Council Minute for 11 May 1888 records the receipt of an undergraduate petition to hold a dance in the Guildhall. The request was refused, members of the Council suspecting that the undergraduate committee concerned was unlikely to carry through a successful event, but in an attempt to soften the blow the Master, Charles Taylor, stepped in on 15 May to offer his Lodge for a party. On 1 June the Council were in a more constructive, or perhaps, less suspicious mood, agreeing that a supper for guests might be held in the Combination Room. A whimsical description of the Ball, held 14 June, is printed in the Eagle for 1888. The second supper that night is described as a cross between a bump supper and a Council meeting, 'combining as he (the author) no doubt impliec, the conviviality of the one with the dignity of the other'. The champagne was pronounced a credit to France.
The Junior Treasurer of the Lady Margaret Boat Club was one of the stewards, and the debt owed by subsequent early balls to the Boat Club is revealed by a photograph of the Hall equipped for the evening of 1898, sporting at the dais end a display of oar blades held aloft. Lady Margaret's name was soon set aside; the first College May Ball was held on 12 June 1894. In a letter to the Master, the Junior Bursar, Lewis Shore, strongly supported a request put forward by a meeting of some 30 undergraduates for a ball unambiguously identified with the College, held on home turf. The Eagle again records the event in some detail: there was dancing on a specially laid floor in the Hall, supper in the Combination Room, and further revelry in a marquee erected in Chapel Court. Ladies, so we are told, 'accustomed to the blase men about town expressed their astonishment at the vigour they found in Cambridge.' The string bank of the Royal Horse Guards also showed great stamina that night, providing the music to accompany the dancing until 4am. (AM Nicholls, the Eagle 2011]