Rare Brontë items on show for first time in Leeds

Fireside Tales by Charlotte Brontë; a first edition of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey by Emily and Anne Brontë; Centre: Visits in Verreopolis by Charlotte Brontë and autograph letters by Branwell Brontë are among the items on show

Manuscripts, handwritten letters and poems are among "fascinating items" by the Brontë sisters that have gone on public display for the first time.

The University of Leeds' Becoming the Brontës exhibition also features "a rare notebook filled with more than 30 of Emily's poems", organisers said.

It charts the famous literary family's rise to being "genre-defining" authors.

The university said the exhibition would provide a rich insight into the siblings' childhood and their legacy.

Emily Brontë's pencil sketch of a window, circa 1828, was part of the collection of Sir Alfred J. Law of Honresfield before it was purchased by the Brontë Society at a sale in London on 31 March 1933

Among the items on show together for the first time include:

• First editions of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey and Shirley, which was previously owned by the family's servant Martha Brown.

• Emily's own annotated copy of the first Brontë book, 'Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell', published under the sisters' pen names to hide their gender.

• Eight miniature books, handwritten and crafted by Charlotte during childhood and adolescence, including two that are bound in packaging originally used for Epsom salts.

• A pencil sketch by the then 10-year-old Emily, which shows a small hand reaching through a broken window. Curators said the image suggests that of Cathy grasping Lockwood's hand in Wuthering Heights.

• Letters from the sisters revealing their frustration at errors in first editions of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, as well as the challenges they faced together to get their work seen by publishers.

The rare surviving notebook of Emily's poems contains annotations by Charlotte, including the handwritten line: "Never was better stuff penned".

The Brontë sisters - Charlotte, Anne and Emily - were born between 1816 and 1820

The Brontë sisters

• Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were 19th Century novelists who formed one of the world's most famous literary families

• Often left alone together in their isolated Haworth home all three sisters began to write stories at an early age

• Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights are hailed as British classics. Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was a bestseller

• Tragedy struck the family when Emily and Anne both died of tuberculosis within six months of each other between 1848 and 1849. It also killed their brother, Branwell

• Charlotte continued to write and later married, but she too was killed by the disease in March 1855

Source: BBC History

Sarah Prescott, literary archivist at the University of Leeds, said it was "such a privilege to host this exhibition".

"The display features some of the most significant Brontë items to come to light, and it's unlikely that they will be on public display together again in our lifetimes."

Scot McKendrick, from the British Library, said the exhibits gave "an unprecedented insight into the Brontës' evolution as writers."

A handkerchief embroidered with the initials 'A.B.', believed to have belonged to the Brontë family, is also on display

The exhibition, which is on show at the university's Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, has been co-curated with the help of the British Library and the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Many of the items on display have come from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library following a campaign by a national libraries charity.

The library was largely inaccessible for 80 years and its collection had been put up for sale. But it was acquired by the Friends of National Libraries (FNL) and a consortium of organisations including the Brontë Parsonage Museum, all of which had raised more than £15m.