Constance Caroline Woodhill Naden
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poet and philosopher.
Born at 15 Francis Road, Edgbaston
Edgbaston
Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England to Thomas Naden, an architect, later president of the Birmingham Architectural Association, and Caroline Ann who died within two weeks of giving birth. She was brought up by her mother's parents at Pakenham House, Edgbaston, who were devout baptists and well read.
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
day school, where she developed a talent for painting. When she left school at 16 she submitted some paintings to the Birmingham Society of Artists
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is a learned society of artists and an art gallery based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England. it is both a registered charity. and a registered company The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is a learned society of artists and an...
but they were rejected. She then turned her interests to philosophy, languages and the sciences, in 1879 attending the Birmingham and Midland Institute
Birmingham and Midland Institute
The Birmingham and Midland Institute , now on Margaret Street in the city centre of Birmingham, England was a pioneer of adult scientific and technical education and today offers Arts and Science lectures, exhibitions and concerts. It is a registered charity...
to study botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, and in 1881 published her first volume of poetry Songs and sonnets of Springtime and attended courses in science at Mason Science College
Mason Science College
Mason Science College was founded by Josiah Mason in 1875, the buildings of which were opened in Edmund Street, Birmingham, England on 1 October 1880 by Thomas Henry Huxley...
, also becoming a member of the Birmingham Natural History Society. Through this period she began an interest in social Darwinism
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...
, inspired by the writings of Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
which was later to influence her writing.
In 1887 she published a second volume of poetry A modern apostle and inherited a considerable fortune from her grandmother which allowed her to travel to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
(Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
), Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. She returned to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in June 1888, becoming part of the London scientific community, and gaining attention as an essay writer, one of which, Induction and deduction won her the Heslop Gold Medal. At the age of 31 she died as the result of an operation, in 1889. She was lauded after her death for both her philosophical writings, by Dr. Robert Lewins and for her poetry in an article by the Liberal MP William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
(three times prime minister) in the Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
(11 January 1890), in which he ranked her among the top eight women poets of the nineteenth century. Two books were published posthumously, Induction and deduction, and other essays (1890), and The complete poetical works of Constance Naden (1894). Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
, the inspiration for much of her writing remarked that "she had philosophical capacity comparable with that of George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
".
She was buried at Key Hill Cemetery
Key Hill Cemetery
Key Hill Cemetery, , originally called Birmingham General Cemetery, a Nonconformist cemetery, is the oldest cemetery in Birmingham, England. It opened on 23 May 1836. Located in Hockley, the city's Jewellery Quarter, it is one of two cemeteries there...
, Hockley, Birmingham (Section P, Grave No 460), but sadly no headstone survives.
After her death, R. H. Lewins, MD founded the Constance Naden Medal in her honour, given for the best competitive philosophical essay each year. The medal is awarded annually for the best thesis accepted by the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
for the MA degree in the Faculty of Arts.
Lewins also commissioned a bust of Constance which he presented to Mason's College and which is now sited in the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston Park Road.
On 14 December 2009, The Birmingham Civic Society provided a commemorative blue plaque which was unveiled by the Lord Mayor. The inscription reads "CONSTANCE C.W.NADEN 1858-1889 Poet, Scientist and Philosopher lived here for most of her life"