This article traces the history of the Constance Naden memorial bust, commissioned in 1890 and now held in the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham. We describe the commissioning, funding and creation process, and analyse its purpose in terms of memorialisation, its negotiation of gender, and how it portrays Naden as a poet, philosopher and scientist. The enduring legacies of, and reactions to the bust, are considered in the context of Birmingham’s Mason Science College, where Naden studied between 1881 and 1887. We argue that Naden’s bust is symptomatic of the University of Birmingham establishing its identity and that the subsequent changes in its location within the institution signify the shifting role of Naden within that legacy. Our reading of this sculptural artefact leads to several broader observations regarding poetic identity, gender, genius and female education, the establishment of universities and consolidating of civic identities via sculpture, and the memorialisation of the poet. While a surface reading of the bust obscures the multifaceted nature of Naden’s intellectual career, by attending to it more closely, turning the object on its plinth and locating it in its physical contexts over time, a far richer and more accurate view of the object, the person, and her place in history becomes apparent.

中文翻译：

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追溯康斯坦斯·纳登的雕塑遗产：纪念、性别和半身像

本文追溯了康斯坦斯·纳登 (Constance Naden) 半身像的历史，该半身像于 1890 年委托制作，现在保存在伯明翰大学的吉百利研究图书馆。我们描述了委托、资助和创作过程，并分析了其在纪念、性别协商以及如何将纳登描绘成诗人、哲学家和科学家的目的。纳登在 1881 年至 1887 年间就读于伯明翰梅森科学学院，对半身像的持久遗产和反应进行了考虑。我们认为纳登的半身像是伯明翰大学确立其身份以及随后发生的变化的征兆其在机构中的位置标志着纳登在该遗产中的角色转变。我们对这件雕塑作品的阅读导致了对诗歌身份、性别、天才和女性教育、大学的建立和通过雕塑巩固公民身份以及诗人的纪念等方面的一些更广泛的观察。虽然对半身像的表面解读掩盖了纳登知识生涯的多面性，但通过更密切地关注它，将物体放在底座上并随着时间的推移将其定位在其物理环境中，从而对物体进行更丰富、更准确的观察，这个人，她在历史上的地位变得显而易见。