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Recent News

  • Book News

    Eleanor’s long awaited, self-illustrated biography, ‘Charlotte Brontë’s Life Through Clothes’, (Bloomsbury, Feb 2026) is now available from all good bookshops. It has already been featured on BBC Radio, Tatler and ITV’s GMB.

  • Online Shop Open

    Eleanor’s online shop is now OPEN FOR BUSINESS. You can explore her unique collection of cards and books, prints and postcards. Plenty for Austen, Brontë and historic costume lovers alike.

  • Exhibition News

    Thrilled to announce that four of my original paintings, inspired by Jane and Cassandra Austen’s handmade quilt, are currently on display at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton.

Eleanor’s Instagram - Catch up with @eleanorhoughtonhistorian here

Some months after her sister Anne’s death, Charlotte Brontë asked her lifelong friend Ellen Nussey to procure a squirrel tippet and a sable boa and cuffs with earnings from ‘Jane Eyre’. The squirrel tippet was for everyday wea
This remarkable collar (almost a pelerine really), dates to between 1845–1850 and now resides in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It is formed from plain weave muslin and has been entirely hand embroidered. Spread acros
At nine years old, the young Charlotte Brontë would have stepped into pumps like these for church and other formal occasions. Though we know she must have owned such shoes, sadly, none of her formal childhood pairs survive. The single surviving