A New Jane Austen Exhibit Showcases Rare Letters Between the Author and Her Confidant

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This year marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth—and it is being celebrated with new books, events, and a special exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.

“Jane Austen has always been a beloved figure at the Morgan,” the Museum's director, Colin B. Bailey, said at a press preview of the new exhibit. The Morgan is home to a third of Austen's surviving letters, and A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 , on view today through September 14, draws on that deep collection to present a wide-ranging, in-depth exhibition on the famed author, showcasing artifacts, manuscripts, and artworks. “We're honored to have the opportunity to commemorate Jane Austen's major birthday by telling the story of her authorship in a fresh, engaging way for a wide audience,” curators Juliette Wells and Dale Stinchcomb tell T&C . “The Morgan's own set of Austen's manuscripts is second to none, so we're able to feature lots of her letters as well as feature important historical documents in her handwriting.”

Wells, a Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College, and Stinchcomb, the Morgan's Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, worked together to put the exhibit together. Every part of the exhibit features a thoughtful touch, like how the space utilizes wallpaper from Austen's home —released by Hamilton & Weston Wallpapers in partnership with Jane Austen's House —and much of it is in the green and white “Chawton Leaf” pattern, which was in the room where she wrote most of her novels.

A Lively Mind also marks a second, much less well-known anniversary: the anniversary of the death of American Austen collector Alberta H. Burke , who passed away in 1975. “She had spent her entire adult life, beginning in the 1930s, developing her knowledge of Austen and carefully assembling a very distinguished private collection of books, manuscripts, artworks, and ephemera relating to Austen and her period,” Wells and Stinchcomb explain. “Alberta Burke felt strongly that an Austen collection formed in the US should stay in the US, to benefit readers and fans on this side of the Atlantic. So she bequeathed her Austen collection to two North American institutions. The Morgan received her manuscripts and original artworks, and everything else—more than a thousand volumes, plus forty-plus boxes of research papers—went to her alma mater, Goucher College in Baltimore.”

They add, “We hope that visitors to A Lively Mind leave with a new appreciation of Austen's imagination, courage, and artistry, as well as of the visionary collection formed, with love and expertise, by Alberta Burke.”

On view in the collection includes artifacts such as a turquoise ring that belonged to Jane and was passed down in the Austen family; correspondence with her sister, Cassandra; first-edition copies of her novels and manuscripts; and so much more. Stinchcomb emphasizes the letters between Jane and her sister and lifelong confidante, Cassandra, are a particular highlight.

“Jane’s letters are as close as we can get to Jane the person,” he says. “The Morgan holds 51—nearly a third—of Jane’s surviving letters, by far the largest collection anywhere in the world. Some of the letters on view bear witness to Cassandra’s efforts to edit their private conversation for future generations. Fortunately for us, Cassandra did not censor all of Jane's witty and irreverent remarks. Today her letters still read breathlessly, a firehose of news and gossip, and are often laugh-out-loud funny. We plan to digitize and publish online the Morgan’s entire collection of letters for the use and enjoyment of Austen scholars, students, and enthusiastic readers.”

Wells, meanwhile, highlights the series of artworks by women artists that accompany the artifacts and manuscripts from Austen's time. The art “helps us envision Austen's world and think expansively about her legacy today,” she says. “It feels like stepping into an Austen novel to see Lady Dalhousie's watercolors of people dancing in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 1810s and Sophie DuPont's drawing of women reading in Delaware in the 1820s. Original pen-and-ink illustrations for Sense and Sensibility by Chris Hammond invite us to consider all the characters in that novel, not just the privileged ones. At the end of the show is Amy Sherald's magnificent portrait A Single Man in Possession of a Good Fortune (2019), which invites us to think about who Mr. Bingley of Pride and Prejudice could be if he were alive in our own day and time.”

Of course, the drive for the exhibition is that the public remains fascinated by Jane Austen, 250 years after her birth. That's thanks to her novels, say the curators. “Austen's novels are unbelievably engrossing, once you acclimate to her language. Even if you've read one of them before and know exactly what happens, she draws you in, and you can't stop reading. Austen's novels are wonderful to reread, especially at different life stages. You always notice new nuances, and your appreciation of her artistry evolves as you grow and change,” Wells and Stinchcomb say.

Plus, Austen's books are still “truly funny,” they add. “Her humor still lands, which can't be said of her contemporaries, alas.”