Exhibit:

The Brontë Cabinet

Preview of images

History of British Birds
Emily Brontë's Coffin, Victorian Bier Stand
Thomas Bewick uncaptioned, 1804, from Wikipedia Molly Jordan, duplication of Thomas Bewick's uncaptioned, 2022

Part of Group:

The Brontës, Fall 2022

Emily Bronte's desk

Emily's desk, on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum 

In The Brontë Cabinet, (2015), Deborah Lutz investigates material objects owned by the sisters—souvenirs, mementos, books, writing desks—to illuminate the Brontë sisters’ lives.  Material objects that the sisters created, touched, lived with, and incorporated into their writing help us to set the Brontës and their writing in their cultural moment and to understand each sister better. In our final classes, we will construct our own Brontë cabinet by choosing either an artifact Lutz mentions from the sisters’ lives—writing desks, letters, paintings, etc.—or objects in the sisters’ novels. Choose 4-8 related items to convey a narrative arc; for example, the contents of a writing desk might accompany a gallery case on a sister's desk.  For each item, write a caption and header.  Then design a narrative to explain the relationship among the items you have chosen to put on display to remember an aspect of the Brontës' lives and their literary legacy.

Images in this Exhibit

"Printed By Herself and Sold By Nobody": Miniature Books and Juvenilia by the Brontë Siblings

In spite of numerous hardships faced at the beginning of their short lives including both parental and familial loss, all four of the Brontë siblings managed to create miniature inventive books of great humor, creativity, and literary promise. Charlotte, the eldest, followed by Branwell, Emily, and Anne, each created poems, short stories, magazines, and manuscripts in their youth. Despite their miniature size, the books created by these miniature authors exceed readers' material expectations through grandeur of wit, charm, and scale. While the vast majority of Brontë juvenilia has been...
Toy Soldiers and Imaginary Worlds

In June of 1826, Reverend Patrick Brontë returned home from the city of Leeds with twelve toy soldiers for his son, Branwell.  These soldiers quickly sparked the imaginations of Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne Brontë, and the siblings began crafting fantastical stories around these figures that would carry through into their writing as adults. The toy soldiers provided a gateway into the worlds of Angria and Gondol and the capital city of Glass Town. The children came up with rich narratives of love, war, tragedy, greed, and betrayal, developing the stories through poetry and prose as...
The Not So Secret Lives Of The Brontë Sisters: The Victorian Diary

It is not esoteric knowledge that the Brontë sisters were skilled novelists and poets; however, the Brontë sisters all also shared a passion for diary writing. All three sisters--Charlotte, Emily, and Anne--kept journals and diaries which they wrote in frequently. Emily and Anne kept some of their diary papers folded up inside a writing box. The first of these notable diary papers is "The First Paper of Emily and Anne, 1834." This was the first diary paper that Emily and Anne wrote together. Like Emily and Anne, Charlotte Brontë also wrote many diary entries that she kept in a journal...
Brontë Writing Desks: Life & Fiction

Writing desks were common amongst the middle and upper classes in the Victorian era. They were easily transportable, ensuring writing in the most productive environment. There were compartments towards the top for writing implements, as well as letter writing materials. Many desks contained valuable information, such as money, jewelry, passports, and wills. Even though there were different types of desks, the secret compartments were often located by the inkwell compartment or by the release button. Desks required a key and lock. The Brontë's owned the most common type of desk of the four...
The Brontës and Thomas Bewick's _A History of British Birds_
History of British Birds

At the opening of Jane Eyre, we find Jane reading A History of British Birds (1797, 1804) by Thomas Bewick. The natural history book captivates and comforts young Jane, who lives unhappily with the Reeds at Gateshead.  Reading Bewick in secret in the window seat, Jane returns us to a source that influenced the life of Charlotte Brontë and her siblings. The Brontë family owned an 1804 edition of Bewick's A History of British Birds.  This two-volume nonfiction work inspired the early artwork of Charlotte and her siblings, all of whom imitated Bewick's drawings: ...
Graves and Life After Death
Emily Brontë's Coffin, Victorian Bier Stand

Description:  Death was a common part of life in the Victorian period. The Victorians had become used to losing loved ones of all ages, ranging from babies to grandparents. The Brontë family was no exception. The first member to die was their mother, Maria, due to sickness, shortly after giving birth to little Anne. Maria left behind her husband, Reverend Patrick Brontë, and their six children. The next to die was young Maria, the oldest child, at just the age of 11; she contracted tuberculosis at her school, and the second oldest, Elizabeth, lso returned home shortly after young Maria,...
The Black-Edged Mourning Letter and Other Mourning Etiquette

Death loomed over the Brontës from a very young age. The siblings' mother died when they were all very young, followed by the death of the two eldest siblings: Maria and Elizabeth. This ever-present threat of death influenced their writing--death itself and various mourning rituals, specifically the donning of black clothing, frequently appears in their novels. Through studying the mourning process, including the way others were alerted to the death of a family member or friend, we can see how all-consuming death was during the Victorian era and why it has such a presence throughout the...
Mourning Jewelry - Giving Hair a Second Life

Anne, Charlotte, and Emily are tied together through the books they published but also through the items they left behind. The Brontë’s subscription to mourning jewelry created a physical link between Charlotte and her siblings after their early deaths. Mourning jewelry is linked to the Medieval Cult of Saints, which used relics and reliquaries to be blessed by holy figures and to serve as a form of religious devotion. Victorian mourning jewelry served as a connection to loved ones who had died, to feel like the wearer was being blessed by the physical presence of their loved one. This is...
Victorian Era Hairstyles

In Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, hairstyles have played important roles in character development. Reserved Helen Graham and her long glossy curls, uppity Blanche Ingram and her black ringlets, pious Jane and her hair combed behind her ears all represent different aspects of these characters' personalities.  Carefree and unique, Emily was said to have fewer qualms over her appearance than her sisters. Of course, her heroine is often portrayed with her hair down and wild. Charlotte, who was made fun of in school for her “crimped, old womanish...
Poking Holes in Femininity and Domesticity: Needlework Across the Brontë Novels

Needlework, the art or practice of sewing or embroidery, plays an important role in the lives of the Brontë sisters and their novels. A quiet Victorian pastime for young women, needlework engrossed women in their work mending clothes and decorating elegant fabrics. This essential feminine skill was a key component of a woman’s education that solidified her position in the home and allowed women to fulfill their domestic responsibilities as mothers and wives. Generally understood in two categories, needlework simultaneously encapsulates the plain, mundane work that women sewed, and the more...
Coloring in the Brontës: Drawings From, and of, the Brontës
Thomas Bewick uncaptioned, 1804, from Wikipedia Molly Jordan, duplication of Thomas Bewick's uncaptioned, 2022

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë were introduced to art in the same way that many other Victorian middle-class women were--through the reproduction of prints that were published and made by male artists.  Even members of the growing middle class could afford one or two sketches or a popular gift book, including intricate portraits, landscapes, and images with Biblical and literary themes. This igrowing emphasis on "accomplishments" for middle-class women made drawings along with embroidery and singing mandatory for girls seeking to advance in their schooling and attain upward...
The Brontës and the Victorian Piano

 In the Victorian time period, the piano emerged as a symbol of class and skill. Young women were expected to become proficient in piano for multiple reasons, including to attract a spouse, display a family's wealth, and, if working towards governessing, to teach.  The Brontë sisters were gifted a piano by their father Patrick Brontë in 1833.  While all three women were proficient, Emily took a special liking to the instrument and became a gifted pianist.  As all three went on to work as governesses, their piano skills would have been useful.  The Victorian piano makes an appearance in...
Dogs in the Lives and Novels of the Brontës

Dogs were quite prominent in the Brontë sisters' lives. They were the subjects of drawings by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne and companions to Emily and Anne. Emily believed dogs were superior to humans, Anne put the needs of animals over her own, and Charlotte deeply cared for her siblings’ dogs after Emily and Anne passed away. While Emily and Anne captured the essence of their dogs in their works, dogs eventually found a  voice when their father wrote a letter to Charlotte from the perspective of Anne’s dog, Flossy. Emily and Anne display their experiences and attitudes towards dogs  in...
Walking the Moors

Located west of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, lays a region of moorland in the south Pennine Hills. Harsh winds and stormy weather consume the moors, adding to its wild and unruly nature. Few trees grow there, and the few that do often reflect the rough and stunted way of the moors. Purple heather brings color to the otherwise muted grasslands, and bracken ferns and moss grow happily in this otherwise barren land. The moors are where the Brontë sisters grew up. All three sisters spent their childhood rambling about the moors, exploring the rugged landscape and the magic of the...
The Red Room and the Supernatural

Charlotte Brontë was haunted by death that seemingly followed her everywhere she went. Many fall apart simply at the thought of losing the amount of people Charlotte lost in her few years on this planet. Where Charlotte could have fallen, we see her thrive through her writing. The analysis of Charlotte Brontes use of the supernatural, and her creation of the red room, is vital to understanding Charlotte as a person and author and its ongoing influence today. 

Branwell Brontë, "The Brontë Sisters," 1834, Wikimedia Commons, 2022. 

The first image depicts the three Bronte...
The Realities of Alcohol Felt by the Brontës

Although alcoholism wasn’t considered a disease until the 1860s, it wreaked havoc on Victorian society. The Victorians understood that feelings of drunkenness accompanied alcohol consumption, but they were unaware they could become addicted to this sensation. Similarly, during the Brontës' time, the general public did not understand that habitual drinking was a disease that required medical treatment. Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Brontë understood this phenomenon personally as their brother, Branwell Brontë, succumbed to the seductions of alcohol. The sisters saw the dark side of alcohol,...