‘Exciting’ new donation to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth

It’s been a busy month. Last week, we were alerted to a Charlotte Bronte letter coming up for sale by auction, the next day! Sadly, we were unsuccessful in our bids as it sold for double the estimated price. We were disappointed that we couldn’t bring the letter back home to the place where it was written over 150 years ago. To lift our spirits though, we were thrilled to receive an exciting donation to the collection.

An ivory quill-cutter which the Bronte family would have used to sharpen their quills before they put quill to paper! This was an important tool in the Bronte household and was probably used many times by the young Bronte children to achieve such miniscule handwriting inside their tiny books, and later in life for writing their letters, poems and novels.

We will display the quill-cutter from February 2015. The year 2016 marks 200 years since the birth of Charlotte Bronte and there will be celebrations all over the world.

We have been putting together a list of objects to exhibit at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York to commemorate the bicentenary, which will include a Charlotte Bronte dress, a selection of her artwork, and one of the famous handmade ‘little books’.
The exhibition will travel between the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Parsonage, and finally the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York throughout 2016. keighleynews/Parsonage_Museum_in_Haworth/

the Brontë Society emergency general meeting taking place this weekend at Haworth.

The Museum Association Journal reports the Brontë Society emergency general meeting taking place this weekend at Haworth.

The chairwoman of the Brontë Society, which runs the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, has stepped down just 26 days into her 12-month term.
The society said Christine Went had been forced to take the decision due to "ill health and an urgent family matter". She was appointed as chairwoman on 6 September after a unanimous vote, and formally stepped down on 2 October. Went had previously been a member of the society for four years.
Her resignation came ahead of an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), which takes place this Saturday. A group of more than 50 members have forced the meeting amid a number of allegations about the conduct of the council.
These included a claim that the council attempted to call an EGM to overturn a vote at the society’s AGM in June that defeated motions to extend the chairman of trustees' term of office and give the council the power to summarily expel trustees and members.
The group said the meeting would include discussion about electing a new council in order to “modernise” the organisation and bring “higher levels of professionalism and experience to the society”.
However, a clause in the Company Act prevents a vote removing the current council.
Doreen Harris, the honorary secretary of the society, who has taken on the work of the chairwoman until an appointment is made, said: “Regarding the EGM, we look forward to a frank exchange of views to enable the Brontë Society to go forward into the bicentenary period a stronger and more united organisation.” (Rebecca Atkinson)

“I should love to know what Elizabeth Gaskell would think of the house now.

Historic novelist Elizabeth Gaskell’s Manchester home is set to re-open to the public - after a 20 year battle to save and restore it.
The writer’s home in Ardwick has been completely transformed to take it back to Victorian times when she lived there - writing famous works including North and South and Cranford. Read more, watch a video and see a lot of photo's  at manchestereveningnews/home-novelist-elizabeth-gaskell-

World-famous home of the Brontes is in prime location to welcome a new surge in tourism as Christmas fun gears up

Traders are also proactive in making Haworth a place people want to visit. One of the most popular events is the annual 1940s weekend in May which draws huge crowds of visitors, many of them wearing costumes from the Second World War and recreating the atmospheric wartime period. The event has raised thousands of pounds for charities including the national armed forces charity, the SSAFA, and Help for Heroes.
From October 25 to December 20 the Haworth craft fairs will be pitching up at the Bronte Schoolroom, offering unusual gift inspiration in time for Christmas.
Following on from last year’s success of Haworth’s inaugural Steampunk Weekend, the event, combining science fiction with Victoriana, returns from November 21 - 23.
November is also the month when festivities really begin in Haworth. The traditional ‘Scroggling of the Holly’, with parades and entertainment, runs from November 29 - 30. The Victorian Christmas, running on December 6 and 7, sees traders sporting period costume and the torchlight procession on December 13 and 14 weaves its way down the Main Street, an atmospheric event, complete with carol singers, that promotes Haworth as the place to visit during the festive period. Read more: thetelegraphandargus

Playing games develops innovation and creativity.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Child’s Play is About More than Games, the authors, Peter Gray and Lenore Skenazy, indicate that children learn much by playing.

Playing games develops innovation and creativity. The authors indicate that when children are not told what to do by an adult, they have to figure out their own fun activities.  The Bronte children created an imaginary world called the Great Glass Town Confederacy. This time spent in imaginary play became the backbone for the imagination the three sisters used in writing their classic adult books. thedestinlog/-importance-of-playing-in-childhood

Braving the Brontes

“Braving the Brontes” is the first in a series that introduces “Carly Keene, Literary Detective” – a Juneau girl whose adventurous spirit allows her to brave time travel, ghosts and Victorian England.

Published by New York-based In This Together Media, the book begins and ends in present day Juneau. It takes an interesting turn when Carly is walking downtown with her best friend Francesca.
“They go into a bookshop they’ve never seen down a little alleyway they’ve never seen when they’re walking home from getting hot cocoa downtown. And she’s reading a first edition of ‘Jane Eyre’ and falls asleep, and wakes up in 1846,” Rue says.
Carly finds herself in the home of the Bronte sisters in England as Charlotte Bronte is trying to write the classic “Jane Eyre.” Carly is stuck there until she can solve a mystery involving the literary family. Rue mirrored the fictional Carly after herself as a young girl – someone who read a lot of books, spent a lot of time outdoors and romanticized the past. She says it was important to have Carly be an adventurous, independent Alaskan girl.“Challenges that Carly faces are things that she feels better prepared to deal with because she is Alaskan, like how they approach situations, like a chamber pot,” Rue says. Braving the Brontes is geared for kids ages 9 to 14. Read all th article: alaskapublic/former-juneau-resident-sets-new-pre-teen-book-series-in-alaska/