The history of Newnham begins with the formation of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in Cambridge in 1869. The progress of women at Cambridge University owes much to the pioneering work undertaken by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick, fellow of Trinity. Lectures for Ladies had been started in Cambridge in 1869,[1] and such was the demand from those who could not travel in and out on a daily basis that in 1871 Sidgwick, one of the organisers of the lectures, rented a house at 74, Regent Street to house five female students who wished to attend lectures but did not live near enough to the University to do so. He persuaded Anne Jemima Clough, who had previously run a school in the Lake District, to take charge of this house. The following year (1872), Anne Clough moved to Merton House (built c1800) on Queen's Road,[2] then to premises in Bateman Street. Clough eventually became president of the college.

Newnham is one of the 31 colleges of the University of Cambridge. We have 370 undergraduates, 285 graduate/postgraduate students, and about 70 academic staff. The College is set in beautiful gardens with an adjoining sports field and tennis courts, just across the road from the University’s Sidgwick site and about 10 minutes walk from the historic centre of Cambridge. The College was established in 1871 as one of the first women’s colleges. Newnham is still a women’s college, and the only undergraduate college with an all-female Fellowship.