Eleanor Jourdain was an English academic and author, and Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford

St Hugh's College, Oxford

St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a fourteen and a half acre site on St Margaret's Road, to the North of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 as a women's college, and accepted its first male students in its centenary year in 1986...

, 1915 to 1924. She rose to fame following a claim that she and a fellow teacher had slipped back in time

Time slip

A time slip is an alleged paranormal phenomenon in which a person, or group of people, travel through time via unknown means...

 to the period of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 while on a trip to Versailles

Versailles

Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

, known as the Moberly-Jourdain incident

Moberly-Jourdain incident

The Moberly–Jourdain incident, or the Ghosts of Petit Trianon or Versailles was an event that occurred on 10 August 1901 in the gardens of the Petit Trianon, involving two female academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain...

. She and Charlotte Anne Moberly

Charlotte Anne Moberly

Charlotte Anne Moberly was an English academic. She was the daughter of George Moberly, and was made the first Principal of St. Hugh's College, Oxford...

wrote a book together about the experience. (They did so under assumed names, which invalidates possible accusations of publicity seeking; their identity was not revealed until the mid-1920s, after Jourdain's death.) The book was a best seller but attracted much criticism.

Literature

• An Adventure [at the Petit Trianon. Signed Elizabeth Morison, Frances Lamont]. / [by Moberly, Charlotte Anne Elizabeth]. London, 1911. The later editions were published by Faber, including one edited by Joan Evans, 1955

External links

• The Ghosts of Versailles at www.museumofhoaxes.com
• The book