Early life and education
Maxwell was the daughter of ScottishAcademic career
In 1909, Maxwell became the first woman on the academic staff in Trinity College when she became lecturer in modern history. In 1932 she was awarded an Litt.D. She was given a personal chair in economic history in 1939, the first female professor and when in 1945 she was appointed to the prestigious Lecky chair in modern history, she became the first woman to hold a full-time chair in Trinity. Despite this, as with other women, Maxwell was subject to the "six o'clock rule", whereby women had to leave the College precincts in the early evening. The discrimination against women which took many forms, continued into the late twentieth century. Despite this, Maxwell had strong conservative instincts with respect to reform and disliked upsetting the existing order. Maxwell was a pioneer in her study of economic history at a time when it was generally ignored. The historian R.B. McDowell confirmed that as his professor, Maxwell, who later became a friend, influenced his intellectual life. He was her only research student. Trinity College instituted a scholarship named after Professor Maxwell for Masters students in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.Select publications
Maxwell's first book, ''A Short History of Ireland'' was written for use in schools. ''Irish History from Contemporary Sources 1509-1610'' was ground-breaking in providing an accessible source book of documents for students. It reached a very wide public. She edited Arthur Young's ''Tour of Ireland'' in 1925 and wrote a history of Trinity College. In 1936 Maxwell published ''Dublin under the Georges'' followed shortly after by ''Country and Town in Ireland under the Georges''. These were considered her best work, winning both popular and academic acclaim. They later attracted criticism from Irish nationalists, who accused her of favouring the ruling elite and ignoring the native Catholic populace. Subsequent to her retirement in 1951 she published one more book, ''The Stranger in Ireland.''Personal life
Maxwell lived with her sister at the family home in Dublin and after her retirement moved to England where she died in February 1962. An obituary in ''Trinity'' described her as 'a deeply learned and cultivated woman of much sympathy and understanding, and much modesty and even humility for all her accomplishment and knowledge her shrewd judgments on her subject and on her university eretinged always, it seemed, by an amused and ironic detachment which extended itself to all human affairs.' There is a portrait of Maxwell in theReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Constantia 20th-century Irish historians Irish women non-fiction writers Irish women historians Academics of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 1886 births 1962 deaths