This collection of glass slides / negatives was found in Girton College. Their provenance is unknown, although there is a label on box 5 that refers to a Miss Marshall, 1901. This may be a reference to Dorothy Blanche Louisa Marshall (1868-1956), who was a research lecturer in Chemistry at Girton 1897-1906. It is thought that boxes 1-4 and 6-7 might also have originated from Miss Marshall because: they are housed in similar boxes; the cross sections under a microscope appear to be related; and most of the labels appear to be written in the same hand.
Box 8 is probably from a different source as the slides appear to contain botanical specimens and they date from 1926. The box in which they are contained and the housing of the specimens themselves are identical to those listed at GCPP Sargant 4/3 (Ethel Sargant, botanist, 1863-1918). It is just possible that these slides may have been produced by Agnes Robertson, née Arber, 1879-1960: Agnes studied and taught at University College, London and Newnham College, Cambridge and acted as a research assistant to Ethel Sargant for a time. If this is the case, however, the reason for their presence at Girton is unclear, as they postdate Ethel Sargant’s death by several years.