Legacies of Enslavement research

Downing College engaged with and assisted in the University’s Legacies of Enslavement project and conducted its own research, initially focusing on the history of the family of the College’s founder, Sir George Downing, 3rd Baronet (1685-1749). The College was founded in 1800 and received as its endowment the estates of the Downing family in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.

The report summarising the findings of this research was published in May 2022. It is envisaged that further research will also encompass other major benefactors and members of the College. This research is in its early stages, so publication is not anticipated until 2025. 

Downing’s Early Black Cantabs project

The College Archivist carried out a research project in support of the student-led Black Cantabs Research Society in 2017. This project researched and identified the College’s early black students, dating back to 1917, and shared their life stories with a wider audience through an archive exhibition which ran from 2018 until 2020.

You can read more about the project and some of the College’s earliest black students here. 

 

Published 10 July 2020 and updated 16 April 2024.