19th and 20th Century Philosophy in Perspective - Key Data

Lady Victoria Welby-Gregory (1837-1912) was an English noblewoman and self-taught musician, artist, and philosopher of language. Welby-Gregory is most well-known for developing the theory of significs, which she defined in a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article as “the science of meaning or the study of significance.” Significs was closely related to other theoretical trends of the time, such as semantics, semiotics, and semiology. 

Curated in association with Senate House Library, 19th and 20th Century Philosophy in Perspective contains 54 original monographs from Welby-Gregory’s personal library. It includes works by the likes of William James, Mary Everest Boole, Sir Henry Jones, and Henri Bergson on subjects as diverse as philosophy, theology, and philology. Many of the books feature substantive annotations made by Welby-Gregory herself.

The collection therefore provides students and researchers with an overview of several key debates in 19th and early 20th century Western philosophy, as well as an insight into the inner life of a pioneering female intellectual.