Rhodes House

The will of Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) created scholarships that became known as Rhodes Scholarships, administered by the Rhodes Trust.[2]

Construction of Rhodes House began in 1926 after the Rhodes Trust purchased the two-acre plot from Wadham College the previous year. The mansion was designed by architect Sir Herbert Baker and modelled on the Cape Dutch farmhouse design and traditional English Country mansions.[3] This is reflected in the large beams, trans-domed windows and its Tetra-style portico. The square rubble walls were designed to be consistent with the Western European 17th century architecture of the Oxford University campus. Other features include the open-well staircase constructed from oak, featuring shaped balusters and carved eagle finials.[3][1] Construction was completed in 1928 and the building and its library were handed over to Oxford University.[4][1]

Rhodes House was commissioned by the Rhodes Trust as a memorial to Cecil Rhodes, to act as a centre for research for the "British Empire and Commonwealth, of African and the United States of America", and to be the headquarters of the Rhodes Scholarship system and Rhodes Trust.

Sir Herbert Baker, described as "Cecil Rhodes' own architect",[5] was the sole-architect of Rhodes House. Architectural sculpture was provided by Charles Wheeler, who also worked on other inter-war colonial buildings including: India House, South Africa House and the Neuve Chapelle Indian Memorial.[6] Rhodes House features a series of public rooms included a library, reading room, lecture hall and seminar rooms, a hall in which the Rhodes Scholars hold their annual dinner and the residence for the Rhodes Trust Oxford Secretary or Warden.

During 1931, Albert Einstein delivered a series of three lectures at Rhodes House.[7] Edmund Bowen, a chemistry don at the university, saved the blackboard used in the second lecture (on 16 May). Einstein's Blackboard, now an iconic object, can still be seen at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford,[8] formally presented by Sir Francis Wylie, the Warden of Rhodes House at the time.

Rhodes House houses a significant collection of paintings and photographic portraits and busts, including of:

• Queen Elizabeth II
• Cecil Rhodes, the Founder of the Rhodes Scholarships
• John McCall MacBain, philanthropist[11]
• Zambian human rights activist Lucy Banda-Sichone; her portrait, unveiled in 2015, was the first of a woman Rhodes Scholar ever displayed in Rhodes House.[12]
• Human rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Dr Menaka Guruswamy.[13]
• Former US President Bill Clinton
• Former US President Ronald Reagan
• Philosopher and first African-American Rhodes Scholar Alain Locke
• Former Jamaican Prime Minister Norman Manley
• Jamaican cultural icon Rex Nettleford
• George Robert Parkin, the founding Organizing Secretary of the Rhodes Trust
• Busts of early Rhodes Trustees Viscount Milner and Otto Beit
• Canadian neuroscientist Wilder Penfield
• Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke
• President Wasim Sajjad (Pakistan)[14]
• Former Prime Minister John Turner (Canada)[15]
• Former Prime Minister Dominic Mintoff (Malta)[16]
• Neurophysiologist and Nobel Prize winner, Sir John Eccles
• Pharmacologist and Nobel Prize winner, Sir Howard Florey
• Former United States national security advisor, Susan Rice[17]
• Anti-Apartheid activist, Bram Fischer[18]
• Former United States health secretary, Sylvia Burwell[19]
• Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland
• Philanthropist, Chuck Feeney[19]
• Economist and Nobel Prize winner, Professor Michael Spence[20]
• Former Chairs of the Rhodes Trust, including Sir Kenneth Wheare, Robert Blake, Baron Blake, and Lord Waldegrave of North Hill
• Former Wardens of Rhodes House – Sir Francis Wylie, Sir Carleton Allen, Sir Edgar Williams, Dr Robin Fletcher, Sir Anthony Kenny, Dr John Rowett, Sir Colin Lucas, and Professor Donald Markwell.
• Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who joined his name with Cecil Rhodes in the Mandela Rhodes Foundation

The Rhodes Trust is based at Rhodes House. The Rhodes Trust, established in 1902 under the terms and conditions of the will of Cecil Rhodes, and by subsequent Acts of Parliament, is an educational charity[21] whose principal activity is to support scholars selected from the citizens of 14 specified geographic constituencies to study at the University of Oxford. Rhodes Scholarships for up to three years have been awarded annually since 1903.[22] The goals of Cecil Rhodes in creating the Scholarships were to promote civic-minded leadership among young people with (in the words of his 1899 Will) "moral force of character and instincts to lead", and (in the words of a 1901 codicil to his Will) to help "render war impossible" through promoting understanding between the great powers.[23]

In 2002, in partnership with Nelson Mandela, the Rhodes Trust established the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship.[24] The Rhodes Trust provides the Rhodes Scholarships in partnership with the Second Century Founders, John McCall MacBain O.C., the Atlantic Philanthropies, and other benefactors. In 2016 the Trust announced a partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies to create an Atlantic Institute, which has offices at Rhodes House. Funding for this project allowed the Trust to expand the total number of Rhodes Scholars and to offer scholarships to students from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, China, and West Africa.[25]

In 2017, the Schmidt Science Fellows programme was launched as a partnership between Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust.[26] The programme was established to facilitate cross-discipline research that could lead to scientific breakthroughs.[27][28]

The Rhodes Trust is governed by a Board of Trustees,[29] and the Warden of Rhodes House acts as Secretary to the Trust.[30]

• Philip Ziegler. Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships (Yale University Press, 2008); 388 pp. ISBN 978-0-300-11835-3.
• R.W. Johnson. Look Back in Laughter: Oxford's Postwar Golden Age (Threshold Press, 2015); 260 pp. ISBN 978-1-903152-35-5. Has a critical account of the decline of the Rhodes Trust under Warden John Rowett, and commends recovery under Wardens Donald Markwell and Charles R. Conn.

Books and articles by former Wardens of Rhodes House, Oxford:

• Anthony Kenny, The History of the Rhodes Trust. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Donald Markwell, "Instincts to Lead": On Leadership, Peace, and Education, 2013.
• Charles R. Conn, Thinking About Historical Legacies: Looking for Just Principles and Processes: IHJR, 2018.

• Official website
• Virtual tour of Rhodes House Archived 17 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine

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