What prestigious scholarship did Hubble win to study at Oxford?

Hubble won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford. He entered The Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1910 and spent three years there, studying jurisprudence rather than astronomy in accordance with a promise he had made to his dying father.

The Rhodes Scholarship was established in 1902 through the will of Cecil Rhodes and brought talented students from several countries to the University of Oxford. Hubble’s award reflected his outstanding academic and athletic record at the University of Chicago, where he had excelled in track and field as well as his studies.

His Oxford experience did not end his scientific ambitions. Although he studied law and later literature and Spanish, he returned to astronomy after coming back to the United States. He eventually pursued graduate research at Chicago and joined the staff of the Yerkes Observatory. The Marshall, Fulbright, and Truman scholarships are later programs and are not associated with Hubble’s Oxford education.