I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

vrijdag 12 februari 2016

Small world, great ambition – new Haworth exhibition exposes the truth about Charlotte Brontë

What a terrible headline above an article in Keighley News.  At last we will know the truth about Charlotte Bronte, hallelujah, what a noncense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I read about this exposition I feel really sorry for Charlotte Bronte. Her undergarment and a letter she didnt want other people to see?????? Why do we need to see it? Isn't Charlotte Bronte not interesting enough by herself and by her books?

 What do they mean with undergarment?
This?
D116
Titlewhalebone corset which may have been worn by Charlotte Bronte
Description15 eyelet holes down back, 2 at front, buttoned shoulder straps, discoloured, metal plate and some whale bones are exposed; incomplete, no strings.
Materialcotton, metal, whale bone
Dimensions
  • whole 440  mm
  • whole 295  mm

  •  
    I found it in the  Museum catalogue
     

    Here the article of Keighley News:
    THE LIVES of the Brontë sisters closeted in their Haworth parsonage have been picked and unpicked and their relics raked over since the 1850s by biographers, writes Catherine Turnbull.

    This exhibition to mark Charlotte’s 200th birthday on April 21 gathers up the pieces and literally stitches them back together. One of the highlights is a passionate letter on loan from the British Library, which Charlotte wrote to the love of her life, the married Professor Constantin Heger in Brussels; said to be the inspiration for Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre. It was ripped up by Monsieur Heger and bizarrely sewn up by his wife. One of the contemporary artists commissioned to add to the show is Ligia Bouton, whose response to this is to tear up her own version and stitch the pieces back together. The show’s curator, the author Tracy Chevalier, told an audience in Haworth at the opening that she felt a bit guilty about putting Charlotte’s intimate items, including her undergarment and a letter she didn’t intend anyone else to see, on display, “sewn back in a Frankenstein kind of way”.

    Tracy said: “I’m not sure how Charlotte would have felt about that, it’s voyeuristic, she would probably have been horrified. But we have been respectful and are honouring a tiny woman, who lived in a small world, who had great ambition.” We see just how small Charlotte was through her child-size bodice, gloves and shoes, marvel at the tiny books and paintings she made and a scrap from a dress she wore to a London dinner party hosted by William Makepeace Thackeray. The sisters used hair to make jewellery and literally wore their family in rings and necklaces. We are moved by the wisps of Bronte hair.

    Artist Serena Partridge used Tracy’s and parsonage staff’s hair as thread to make miniature boots. There’s a tiny bed you can make with quilts embroidered with Bronte quotes and a knitted tableau.
    I love the humour of weaving the past and present, like the glow in the dark cap. keighleynews

    On the photo: Novelist Tracy Chevalier, who has curated the new exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

    donderdag 11 februari 2016

    From Haworth to New York. How the 200th birthday of Charlotte Brontë will be celebrated

     
     

    To mark the bicentenary of the birth of Charlotte, a huge programme of events is taking place which will reach audiences around the country and beyond.

    It begins this week at the sisters’ former Haworth home, the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where an exhibition opened yesterday, entitled Charlotte Great and Small, exploring the contrast between her constricted life and her huge ambition. Highlights include her child-size clothes, tiny books and paintings she made and a scrap from a dress she wore to an important London dinner party.

    Some of the Brontë Parsonage Museum’s collection goes on display as part of a National Portrait Gallery exhibition which opens this month. Celebrating Charlotte Brontë will run until April before transferring to the Morgan Library in New York. Northern Ballet are presenting the world premiere of a new version of Jane Eyre in May and Sally Wainwright’s Brontë drama To Walk Invisible will air on BBC1 in the autumn.

    And two award-winning authors will also help with the celebrations. Novelist Grace McCleen will respond to the Brontë Parsonage’s collection as a writer in residence while much-loved children’s author Jacqueline Wilson will be an ‘Ambassador for Charlotte’ during 2016. Wilson said: “I’m delighted to be a special ambassador for the bicentenary celebrations in 2016. Jane Eyre is my all-time favourite novel. Jane continues to be an inspiration to us all, especially women - I admire Paula Rego’s powerful artistic interpretation and Sally Cookson’s imaginative stage version at the National Theatre. I first read the book when I was ten and have reread it many times since with increasing enjoyment. I’ve devoured more Brontë novels and many biographies, visited the Parsonage Museum half a dozen times, and I’ve walked across the moors breathing in the bracing air. Perhaps there’s a hint of Jane in several of the child characters in my own books.” Both authors will visit the museum during the year.

    The Charlotte Great and Small exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage has been curated by writer and Brontë enthusiast Tracy Chevalier, who is working with the Brontë Parsonage Museum as a Creative Partner throughout 2016.  She said: “I have long loved Charlotte Brontë and am thrilled to be involved in the celebration of her bicentenary. The Parsonage is a unique house; it’s incredible to see the place where so much creativity arose. I’m hoping to sprinkle some surprises in amongst the dresses and writing desks – including a Twitter tour of the house and exhibition, and even a knitted Jane Eyre.” Tracy will talk about the exhibition and the inspiration behind it at an event in Haworth in early February. She has also edited a new collection of short stories influenced by the writing of Charlotte Brontë. ‘Reader, I Married Him’ is published by Borough Press and comprises stories by international women writers including Helen Dunmore, Susan Hill, Emma Donoghue, Audrey Niffenegger and Jane Gardam. The collection will be launched in Haworth in April.

    Charlotte’s 200th birthday falls on Thursday April 21 and will be celebrated throughout the day in Haworth and nearby Thornton, where she was born. Visitors to the Brontë Parsonage Museum will be invited to hear talks on Charlotte’s life and offered the opportunity to view some of Charlotte’s letters, manuscripts and personal possessions in the library. At the Old School Room, where Charlotte once taught, the Society is hosting a birthday party . A wreath-laying ceremony for invited guests will follow on Friday April 22 at Westminster Abbey. Brontë biographers Juliet Barker and Claire Harman will give lectures in Haworth in May and June respectively.
    The arrival of 2016 also marks the launch of Brontë200, the society’s programme of events celebrating the bicentenaries of the Brontë siblings: Charlotte in 2016, Branwell in 2017, Emily in 2018 and Anne in 2020. The Society also plans to commemorate Patrick Brontë in 2019, 200 years after he was invited to take up the parson’s role in Haworth.

    John Thirlwell of the Brontë Society Council said: “The bicentenaries of the Brontë siblings provide a tremendous opportunity for the Brontë Society to celebrate the legacy of the Brontës across the globe. We recognise that arts organisations, museums and individuals will want to help us mark these special anniversaries and are excited about building new partnerships and reaching new audiences during the five-year programme.” yorkshirepost
    . 

    woensdag 3 februari 2016

    Future of Haworth Visitor Information Centre on the agenda at public consultation session

    Councillor John Huxley, chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council
     
    THE first consultation session to decide the future of the district's threatened visitor information centres has taken place in Haworth. This event was held at the Old White Lion, in West Lane yesterday evening. (Feb 2) Bradford Council's budget plans for the centres – at Haworth, Ilkley, Saltaire and Bradford – include a £19,000 cut this year and a massive £172,000 reduction in 2017-18, which the authority warns could result in closures. The Haworth Visitor Information Centre is in West Lane. Councillor John Huxley, chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, said: "Bradford Council has to make savings, and they believe new technology has a role to play – as do I. "But the Haworth Visitor Information Centre is one of the places in the village which you never see empty. "It is a very important facility and if we're going to be taken seriously as a tourist destination we must have a tourist office of some kind. "As a parish council it's the kind of place we're anxious not to lose, and as a council it's the kind of facility we'd be interested in trying to save. "But that's something we'd first have to discuss in depth at a full council meeting."

    Cllr Huxley added that two members of the parish council were due to report back from the consultation in Haworth on Tuesday. Matt Stroh, chairman of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, said it was important Bradford Council retained a physical presence in Haworth to help visitors, even if it was not as extensive as the current information centre. He suggested staff explored new ways of meeting the needs of many tourists who preferred to seek information before they set out from home. He said: “I’d like there to be investment in tourism in Haworth. I appreciate the centres may have to change their focus to meet the needs of people nowadays, but I don’t think closure is the answer. “I think Haworth would suffer greatly if there wasn’t some kind of physical hub for information and activity.” Haworth Main Street trader Mike Hutchinson, who owns a bed and breakfast, said it was "ridiculous" to even consider axing the village's only tourist information centre.
    He said that if such a closure were to happen, it would be the latest in a series of cuts to public services to hit the village. "What on earth is Bradford Council up to with regards to Haworth?" he asked. "Are they creeping up on everything in Haworth with a giant axe to kill everything off?                  
    "Don't they know Haworth is a tourist area bringing revenue to the whole area?
    "As with a lot of other things, Bradford will go in years to come, 'Oops we shouldn't have done that.' A lot of these facilities are used by locals and visitors alike." keighleynews

    zondag 17 januari 2016

    Snow in Haworth.

     
    facebook/Photographer PAUL JONES

     
    The rear of the old school rooms
     

    Anne Brontë was born on this day in 1820.


    Anne was born in the small Yorkshire village of Thornton on 17 January 1820, the sixth and last child of the Reverend Patrick Brontë, and his  wife Maria.
    You can read a beautiful story about her birthday on: annebronte./the-birth-of-anne-bronte

    zondag 10 januari 2016

    Brontë descendants to visit Bradford district for film about the family's life

     
    DESCENDANTS of the Brontës will visit the Bradford district during the filming of a new documentary about the family’s lives. Lifelong Brontë enthusiast Imelda Marsden will portray the Brontë’s story through the eyes of a Shipley nurse whose ancestor was Patrick Brontë’s sister Sarah. The 20-year-old nurse, known only as Rebecca, will tour West Yorkshire with her grandmother visiting sites where the Brontë sisters lived, worked or stayed. During visits to Haworth, Thornton, Dewsbury and Mirfield, they will also visit houses and landscapes that inspired Brontë novels like Jane Eyre, Shirley and Agnes Grey. Interviews and travelogues will be intercut with dramatised scenes recreating events from Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell’s early life. The resulting DVD will go on sale at Brontë shrines open to the public, including the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Red House and Oakwell Hall. Proceeds will go to Hollybank School in Mirfield, for children with learning disabilities, whose pupils will play Brontë children in the DVD. The film will be one of several being made by companies including the BBC this year to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. Imelda’s film crew will be led by professional TV documentary maker John Thirwell, who is also a member of the Brontë Society Council. thetelegraphandargus

    woensdag 6 januari 2016

    Arthur Bell Nicholls, who was born in County Antrim in Ireland on 6 January 1819

     
    Today we celebrate the birthday of Charlotte Brontë's husband Arthur Bell Nicholls, who was born in County Antrim in Ireland on 6 January 1819. His birth place was Tully Farm, Killead, in the townland of Tully, Co. Antrim. lisburn/historical_society

     

    zondag 3 januari 2016

    Brontë Society and National Portrait Gallery combine for Brontë 200 celebrations

     
    A fragment of Charlotte Brontë’s dress at Haworth© The Brontë Society
     
    Precious relics of the life of Charlotte Brontë are to go on display in 2016 for Bronte200, as the National Portrait Gallery and the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth pool their resources to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of the famous author of Jane Eyre.

    The free display will also feature first editions of Jane Eyre, her first published novel, which enjoyed immediate and enduring popularity as well as Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography, Life of Charlotte Brontë.

    New research about the famous painting of the literary Brontë sisters, by their brother Branwell, will also be revealed, exploring the intriguing story of its discovery folded on top of a wardrobe, subsequent acquisition by the gallery and its restoration.

    The display will also include the chalk drawings of Charlotte and her friend and first biographer Elizabeth Gaskell by George Richmond, alongside portraits of Charlotte Brontë’s heroes and associates such as the Duke of Wellington, poet Lord Byron and novelist William Thackeray.

     
    Charlotte Brontë’s cloth ankle boots with leather toes, heels and side laces © The Brontë Society

    Celebrating Charlotte Brontë 1816-1855 is curated by the National Portrait Gallery’s Associate Curator Rosie Broadley and assisted by Lucy Wood, Assistant Curator who said, “This rare chance to see the only painted portrait of Charlotte Brontë alongside illuminating personal treasures from the Brontë Parsonage Museum provides a fascinating opportunity to celebrate her life and remarkable achievements as one of the most celebrated authors of the 19th century”.

    In Yorkshire, at the epicentre of the thriving international Brontë industry, the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth have invited the novelist Tracy Chevalier to be a “creative partner” for the bicentenary year, to explore creative ways of responding to the Brontë legacy.
    The acclaimed writer, whose works include Girl with a Pearl Earring, has developed an exhibition called I Shall Go Off Like a Bombshell which, through objects and quotations “explores the contrast between Charlotte’s constricted life and her huge ambition”.

    Many of the loans from the Parsonage Museum as well as works from the National Portrait Gallery Collection will be exhibited in the United States for the first time at the Morgan Library in New York in autumn 2016 as the Bronte Society looks to “bring the Brontës to the world and the world to Yorkshire” through events, exhibitions and partnership projects.  Read all on"culture24

    More on the Brontës:

    Public floggings, embezzlements and shocks: Unpublished Charlotte Brontë manuscripts bought by museum

    Patti Smith makes literary pilgrimage to play benefit gig for Brontë Parsonage Museum

    "Little gem" portrait of Charlotte Brontë buddy Mrs Hudson back at Parsonage Museum

    Brontë Society secures Charlotte Brontë letters used by Elizabeth Gaskell

    zaterdag 2 januari 2016

    You know you're in @brontecountry when the moor direction signs are also in Japanese!

    In Search Of Anne Bronte.

    Nick Holland on the weblog Anne Bronte
    My biography of the youngest Brontë is the culmination of my love for Anne and her sisters that really took hold in my first days at University back in the last century, and I hope that my labour of love will bring as much happiness to readers as it did to me when I was writing it. It’s called ‘In Search Of Anne Bronte’ and is being published by The History Press on March 7th, 2016 in the UK, and in June in the United States.

    zondag 27 december 2015

    ""The community was fantastic. Everybody really pulled together."

    A fire chief has praised Haworth residents for their community spirit during yesterday's flooding chaos. Keighley watch commander Darren Armstrong said villagers had rallied round to help those affected and to support emergency services personnel. Firefighters spent much of the day at Mill Hey, where there was severe flooding. Part of the former Royal Oak pub, due to reopen next spring as the Mill Hey Brew House, was swept away. Around half a dozen homes were evacuated and the Spar store and other businesses were flooded. Three people had to be rescued from a car which had become stuck in the flood waters. Fire crews from Keighley, Silsden, Rawdon and Hunslet pushed out a bridge wall to divert water as levels continued to rise. And they used pumps to help clear away some of the deluge. A kitchen to feed people was set-up at the railway station on the Worth Valley line, which had been closed due to the flooding. "The community was fantastic," said Mr Armstrong.
    "People were filling bags with ash for folk to use as sandbags, volunteers on the railway opened-up their facilities and Spar and others gave food. "Everybody really pulled together." keighleynews_in_Haworth

    Furious response to news that plan to establish community safety hub in Haworth has been put on hold. CAMPAIGNERS claim they have been "kicked in the teeth" after a plan to convert and re-open Haworth's closed fire station was removed from a key meeting agenda. They took to the streets of Haworth to protest in pouring rain on Saturday, after learning the scheme to turn the mothballed facility into a community safety hub would not be discussed at tomorrow's fire authority meeting.
    A fire service spokesman has said the project is not dead, but warned the service is having to review its financial situation. Read all: keighleynews

    I received this reaction from Anonymous with an explanation.

    The river is below that road. The flood waters are trapped by the walls. Walls that used to have gaps and gates. The wall in the photo next to the pub was destroyed to save the Royal Oak. This situation is yet another example of the stupidity of the local councils. The actual source of the flood was due to the rail bridge upstream of the road bridge that has not been cleared. Yorkshire Water applied to reduce the flow in the river so that they could extract more, but have failed to clear the silt that accumulated. The river is partially blocked by a large manhole constraining the flow (the sewer is under the river bed). Each obstruction adds a little bit more height to the river and the sum of all the increases overflows the walls.

    Also the river used to flow down the "goit" to the mill and then down the mill race, so bypassing the constriction of the bridge. Well it did in the old days when those in charge knew how to manage the water. Instead the site of the mill has been totally altered and the flood waters do not have a chance to get to the mill race anymore. They are limited to the single bridge span of the road bridge.

    They strive so much to save money, but it costs them a fortune.


    See this video: facebook/Haworthvillage

     

    The Parlour

    The Parlour

    Parsonage

    Parsonage

    Charlotte Bronte

    Presently the door opened, and in came a superannuated mastiff, followed by an old gentleman very like Miss Bronte, who shook hands with us, and then went to call his daughter. A long interval, during which we coaxed the old dog, and looked at a picture of Miss Bronte, by Richmond, the solitary ornament of the room, looking strangely out of place on the bare walls, and at the books on the little shelves, most of them evidently the gift of the authors since Miss Bronte's celebrity. Presently she came in, and welcomed us very kindly, and took me upstairs to take off my bonnet, and herself brought me water and towels. The uncarpeted stone stairs and floors, the old drawers propped on wood, were all scrupulously clean and neat. When we went into the parlour again, we began talking very comfortably, when the door opened and Mr. Bronte looked in; seeing his daughter there, I suppose he thought it was all right, and he retreated to his study on the opposite side of the passage; presently emerging again to bring W---- a country newspaper. This was his last appearance till we went. Miss Bronte spoke with the greatest warmth of Miss Martineau, and of the good she had gained from her. Well! we talked about various things; the character of the people, - about her solitude, etc., till she left the room to help about dinner, I suppose, for she did not return for an age. The old dog had vanished; a fat curly-haired dog honoured us with his company for some time, but finally manifested a wish to get out, so we were left alone. At last she returned, followed by the maid and dinner, which made us all more comfortable; and we had some very pleasant conversation, in the midst of which time passed quicker than we supposed, for at last W---- found that it was half-past three, and we had fourteen or fifteen miles before us. So we hurried off, having obtained from her a promise to pay us a visit in the spring... ------------------- "She cannot see well, and does little beside knitting. The way she weakened her eyesight was this: When she was sixteen or seventeen, she wanted much to draw; and she copied nimini-pimini copper-plate engravings out of annuals, ('stippling,' don't the artists call it?) every little point put in, till at the end of six months she had produced an exquisitely faithful copy of the engraving. She wanted to learn to express her ideas by drawing. After she had tried to draw stories, and not succeeded, she took the better mode of writing; but in so small a hand, that it is almost impossible to decipher what she wrote at this time.

    I asked her whether she had ever taken opium, as the description given of its effects in Villette was so exactly like what I had experienced, - vivid and exaggerated presence of objects, of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc. She replied, that she had never, to her knowledge, taken a grain of it in any shape, but that she had followed the process she always adopted when she had to describe anything which had not fallen within her own experience; she had thought intently on it for many and many a night before falling to sleep, - wondering what it was like, or how it would be, - till at length, sometimes after the progress of her story had been arrested at this one point for weeks, she wakened up in the morning with all clear before her, as if she had in reality gone through the experience, and then could describe it, word for word, as it had happened. I cannot account for this psychologically; I only am sure that it was so, because she said it. ----------------------She thought much of her duty, and had loftier and clearer notions of it than most people, and held fast to them with more success. It was done, it seems to me, with much more difficulty than people have of stronger nerves, and better fortunes. All her life was but labour and pain; and she never threw down the burden for the sake of present pleasure. I don't know what use you can make of all I have said. I have written it with the strong desire to obtain appreciation for her. Yet, what does it matter? She herself appealed to the world's judgement for her use of some of the faculties she had, - not the best, - but still the only ones she could turn to strangers' benefit. They heartily, greedily enjoyed the fruits of her labours, and then found out she was much to be blamed for possessing such faculties. Why ask for a judgement on her from such a world?" elizabeth gaskell/charlotte bronte



    Poem: No coward soul is mine

    No coward soul is mine,
    No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
    I see Heavens glories shine,
    And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.


    O God within my breast.
    Almighty, ever-present Deity!
    Life -- that in me has rest,
    As I -- Undying Life -- have power in Thee!


    Vain are the thousand creeds
    That move mens hearts: unutterably vain;
    Worthless as withered weeds,
    Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,


    To waken doubt in one
    Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
    So surely anchored on
    The steadfast Rock of immortality.


    With wide-embracing love
    Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
    Pervades and broods above,
    Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.


    Though earth and man were gone,
    And suns and universes ceased to be,
    And Thou wert left alone,
    Every existence would exist in Thee.


    There is not room for Death,
    Nor atom that his might could render void:
    Thou -- Thou art Being and Breath,
    And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


    --
    Emily Bronte

    Family tree

    The Bronte Family

    Grandparents - paternal
    Hugh Brunty was born 1755 and died circa 1808. He married Eleanor McClory, known as Alice in 1776.

    Grandparents - maternal
    Thomas Branwell (born 1746 died 5th April 1808) was married in 1768 to Anne Carne (baptised 27th April 1744 and died 19th December 1809).

    Parents
    Father was Patrick Bronte, the eldest of 10 children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor (Alice) McClory. He was born 17th March 1777 and died on 7th June 1861. Mother was Maria Branwell, who was born on 15th April 1783 and died on 15th September 1821.

    Maria had a sister, Elizabeth who was known as Aunt Branwell. She was born in 1776 and died on 29th October 1842.

    Patrick Bronte married Maria Branwell on 29th December 1812.

    The Bronte Children
    Patrick and Maria Bronte had six children.
    The first child was Maria, who was born in 1814 and died on 6th June 1825.
    The second daughter, Elizabeth was born on 8th February 1815 and died shortly after Maria on 15th June 1825. Charlotte was the third daughter, born on 21st April 1816.

    Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls (born 1818) on 29th June 1854. Charlotte died on 31st March 1855. Arthur lived until 2nd December 1906.

    The first and only son born to Patrick and Maria was Patrick Branwell, who was born on 26th June 1817 and died on 24th September 1848.

    Emily Jane, the fourth daughter was born on 30th July 1818 and died on 19th December 1848.

    The sixth and last child was Anne, born on 17th January 1820 who died on 28th May 1849.

    Top Withens in the snow.

    Top Withens in the snow.

    Blogarchief

    LinkWithin

    Related Posts with Thumbnails