Davis's Cartoons relating to the University of Oxford
George Davis opened a fancy-goods shop at 2 Cornmarket in 1890. He died in 1891 and his wife Matilda in 1904, but the business continued in that shop until 1911, and then moved to 7 Turl Street.
The firm produced many cartoon postcards relating to the University.
The above postcard shows undergraduates entering the Examination Schools wearing jackets, commoners’ gowns, and mortar boards, but no trousers. At the Encaenia of 22 June 1904 the Public Orator (Dr Merry) referred in his Oration to the “black coat” edict issued by the Examiners in the academic year just coming to an end. Presumably either this edict or the Orator in his Latin speech inserted “only” in the wrong place, saying something like “Members of the University must wear only black coats when entering the Examination Schools.”
The above postcard (postmarked 10 February 1907) is from Davis's “Americans in Oxford” series, and the caption reads:
American ladies, (bursting into an undergraduate's room) “Beg pardon, young man, we had no idea these
ancient ruins were inhabited!”
Other postcards in the same series (with postmarks ranging from to 1907 to 1915) include:
- American lady looking at scaffolding for repairs at New College explaining to another that it was the New College and the scaffolding had not yet been taken down
- American lady who has heard that there is a Shelley Memorial in Oxford pointing to the Sheldonian Theatre and telling another that it was built in memory of the poet and is called the Shelley-dome-ian
- American lady looking at the open-air pulpit in the St John the Baptist's quadrangle of Magdalen College explaining that St John used to preach from it.
- American lady asking a University Beadle outside the Sheldonian Theatre if he is the Vice-Chancellor
- American lady asking the conductor of a horse-drawn tram near the Railway Hotel if it will put them down at “the famous Oxford University”, and her daughter telling her to hurry as their train leaves for Stratford in 30 minutes.
See more of Davis's cartoons postcards on these pages:
- The controversial University College bridge over Logic Lane
(scroll to halfway down this page) - The horror of the University at the idea of an electric tram in the High
(scroll down to third image) - “Ekker and Brekker” and “The Proggins and the Bullers”
(t the top and bottom of this page on university slang)
Under construction: more postcards to be added
