First Cambridge outing for all-women fire brigade musical songs

Songs from a musical which celebrates a 19th Century physics student will be heard in the city where she studied for the first time.

The musical tells the story of how Hertha Ayrton founded an all-women fire brigade in 1879 at Girton College , then a women's college at Cambridge University.

Music from The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade musical will be heard at an Open Cambridge event at the university's Whipple Museum in September.

Co-creator and lyricist Helen Arney said: "We've been working on doing something in Cambridge for so, so long and to finally get there is so lovely."

Alison Giles, the museum's learning coordinator, said bringing music into the museum was "definitely not something we'd usually do".

"But we like to collaborate with others who bring along something that isn't our usual skill set and it's a delight to work with other people who research women scientists," she added.

Whipple Museum of the History of Science takes its name from Robert Stewart Whipple (1871-1953), who gave his collection of 1,000 scientific instruments to the university in 1944, along with a similar number of rare books.

This year's Open Cambridge event is marking the 120th anniversary of Ayrton being awarded the Royal Society's prestigious Hughes Medal - the first and only woman in the entire 20th Century to receive the honour.

Giles said: "We're calling the event Making Marks, because Hertha Ayrton was born Phoebe Marks.

"Dr Patricia Farra, a leading expert on Ayrton, will talk about her specifically and flesh out that story, alongside interactive family talks and hands-on activities."

While the museum does not have any of her instruments - "anything to do with arc lighting is mostly lethally dangerous" - it does have a fume cabinet that once belonged to Ida Freund, another eminent scientist featured in the musical, Giles added.

Arney said: "Freund was an orphan with one leg, dumped at Girton by her guardian, who fell in love with Girton and teaching and taught chemistry at Newnham [another women-only Cambridge college] for decades after.

"Her fume cabinet sucked poisonous air out of the atmosphere during experiments - and our songs will be performed nearby, which is just lovely."

During the event, singer-songwriter Noa Shakhar will perform the Ayrton role, accompanied by Girton graduate and organ scholar Felix Elliot, who is now a musical director in theatre and musicals.

The other pioneering Girton science students featured in the musical are astronomer Annie Russell Maunder , botanist Ethel Sargant and mathematician Charlotte Scott .

Making Marks will take place during Open Cambridge on 12 September . It is supported by University of Cambridge Museums Arts Council England Fund.

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Whipple Museum of the History of Science