Provost encourages nominations for female bust in the Long Room

Nominations have opened for a new marble bust addition to the Long Room of the Old Library

The Provost, Patrick Prendergast, has called for nominations for a female scholar to be memorialised in a bust sculpture in the Long Room of the Old Library.

The email, to all students and staff, requesting nominations stated that all nominees should be women “as Trinity’s public spaces should be more representative of our diversity”.

Currently, there are 40 marble busts in the Long Room, all of which are of men. Included in the collection are busts of Edmund Burke, Aristotle, Isaac Newton and Jonathan Swift. 

The Provost stated the nominations would be considered “ by a committee chaired by myself that will include both the Registrar and the Librarian, and other members of the college community.”

 The commissioning of a new sculpture will follow the criteria established for previous commissions in the 20th century. Namely the he nominated subject must have been a scholar, although not necessarily at Trinity, and be deceased. 

The collection of marble busts in Trinity’s Old Library began in 1743 when Trinity commissioned 14 busts of prominent scholars and philosophers from the sculptor Peter Scheemakers. 

Submissions to nominate a subject for the new sculpture must be less than 300 words and include the reasons for the nomination as well as links to information relevant to the nomination. Nominations can be emailed to the provost until December 1st. 

Jessica Hobbs Pifer

Jessica Hobbs Pifer is a Deputy News Editor of Trinity News. She is a Senior Fresh Middle Eastern and European Languages and Cultures student.