Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present Paperback – June 17, 1998
by Lillian Faderman
Queer Places:
33 Barton Road, Cambridge, CB3 9LB
Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridge, City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Baroness Eliza Margaret von Hügel (née Froude; March 1840 – December 15, 1931), affectionately known to friends and family as "Isy," was an English benefactor, ethnological collector, and active proponent of women’s education and religious life in Cambridge.
Born in 1840, Eliza was the daughter of the famed engineer and naval architect William Froude (F.R.S.) and Catherine Holdsworth. She was also the niece of the Victorian historian James Anthony Froude and Oxford Movement leader Richard Hurrell Froude.
Growing up in an eminent Victorian family exposed Eliza early on to high-level scientific, literary, and theological debates, shaping her lifelong commitment to scholarship and community advocacy.
In 1880, Eliza married Baron Anatole von Hügel (1854–1928), an Austrian-born ethnologist and traveler. Shortly after their marriage, the couple settled in Cambridge, where Anatole was appointed the first curator of the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA)—a position he held for nearly four decades.
During her time in Cambridge, Eliza played a pivotal role in several key areas:
She donated significant personal funds to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and laid the foundation stone for its Downing Street building in 1910.
She shared her husband's passion for ethnology. In 1912, she traveled with him to Morocco and the Canary Islands to acquire artifacts for the museum (including a rare historic cowbell from Tenerife).
Alongside Anatole, she was instrumental in supporting and expanding Roman Catholic chaplaincy and higher education initiatives within the University.
In 1890, Eliza joined a selective group of Cambridge women to form the Ladies Dining Society.
Formed by author Louise Creighton and activist Kathleen Lyttelton, the society was an exclusive dining and discussion club for 11 (later 12) women, primarily married to Cambridge academics.
At a time when male academics dined regularly at college High Tables while excluding their wives, the Ladies' Dining Society offered women their own intellectual sanctuary—a lighthearted yet deliberate "retaliation" against male-only university dining.
The society’s members were united by their belief in women's higher education, playing active roles in campaigns for female Cambridge degrees and women’s suffrage.
Fellow members included Eleanor Sidgwick (Principal of Newnham College), Mary Paley Marshall (pioneering economist), Ida Darwin, Caroline Jebb, Maud Darwin, and Margaret Verrall.
When evaluating Eliza von Hügel within LGBTQ+ history, historians distinguish between her personal identity and the broader queer historical significance of the circles in which she moved:
In terms of personal biography, there is no direct historical evidence indicating that Eliza identified as lesbian, bisexual, or queer, nor are there records of romantic partnerships with women. Her documented personal life centers primarily on her long-standing marriage to Baron Anatole von Hügel.
Historians studying turn-of-the-century women’s history frequently examine groups like the Ladies' Dining Society through a queer historical lens:
The Society provided a space for same-sex solidarity, intimacy, and female autonomy in an institutional environment dominated by men.
Late Victorian and Edwardian women’s academic networks were deeply intertwined with "romantic friendships" and non-traditional domestic arrangements. While some members maintained strictly heterosexual marriages, others existed alongside or actively supported early progressive, non-conforming social networks in Cambridge.
Eliza von Hügel remains an essential figure in Cambridge’s turn-of-the-century cultural history. Through her philanthropy to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, her work for Catholic education, and her membership in the Ladies' Dining Society, she helped carve out vital spaces for female autonomy and intellectual life.
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Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present Paperback – June 17, 1998 by Lillian Faderman |
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