Dr Jane Hughes, Fellow in English and Pepys Librarian at Magdalene, has headed up a project to digitise the letters between George and Ruth Mallory; and is co-curating, with archivist Katy Green, an exhibition starting on 20th June in the Gallery, Magdalene New Library Building. George Mallory died attempting an ascent of Everest on 8th or 9th June 1924, so the project is a commemoration of the anniversary of the tragedy. The archival materials held at Magdalene include thoughts on mountaineering, and also records of Mallory as a student, a soldier at the Somme, and as a husband. The letters between George and Ruth are a unique survival of correspondence in the first quarter of the twentieth century covering both extreme courage shown by both, and also everyday life on the home front.
