#JaneRocks #SupportChawtonHouse
#JaneRocks #SupportChawtonHouse
Supporting Chawton House in its ongoing work of fostering greater understanding of early women's writing
Help to safeguard a priceless Austen family property and the great legacy of early women writers housed at the “Great House.”
Campaigns & Events
We made the match!
Read more about the HHA grant NAFCH helped with. MORE >
Flag-raising campaign
Would you like your state flag to fly over Chawton House for a day? MORE >
GLOSS ~ The Godmersham Lost Sheep Society
Help us find and acquire books lost from the Austen/Knight family library at Godmersham House. MORE >
News
January 2025
It was a busy fall at Chawton House, and the financial support of the Friends made much of that possible.
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In September, the first exhibit ever devoted to Mary Robinson—actress, mistress, writer, radical—opened to great acclaim. It was an eye-opener for those who knew “Perdita” Robinson mainly as the mistress of the Prince of Wales. It features a book recently purchased by the Friends, the 1799 French translation of her novel The False Friend, and will continue through 21 April 2025.
The heating system was upgraded in October, thanks to a grant from the Historic Houses Association (for which NAFCH provided the critical matching funds). The building this winter will be much more comfortable for visitors, scholars, and the staff.
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Several Godmersham “lost sheep” were located. Two of the titles that have been added to the Chawton House library's collection are The Aurelian: or, natural history of British insects, namely, moths and butterflies. Together with the plants on which they feed (London, 1773) and the eleven volumes of Edward Daniel Clarke’s Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa (London, 1816–). By the way, the author of the latter was the younger brother of the Prince Regent's librarian James Stanier Clarke.
​On a less academic note, Chawton House made its three-bedroom Scholar’s Flat available for short-term rental on Airbnb—at least for those times when the Visiting Fellows will not be in residence. We’ve had a few Friends stay there already and the reports have been excellent. At JASNA in Cleveland, the NAFCH table at the Emporium offered a two-night stay as a super-raffle item, and it proved to be a very successful fundraiser.
​The year 2025 will be a big year for Jane Austen—it is the 250th anniversary of her birth. We will keep you posted about some of the events hosted by Chawton House—the first up is a library display entitled Pride and Prejudice Through the Ages. ​
Social media updates
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Natalie Jenner donates royalties for her book The Jane Austen Society to Chawton House!
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Laura Rocklyn donates Lady Molesworth's set of Jane Austen's novels to Chawton House.
Support Chawton House in its mission.
NAFCH exists expressly in order to raise funds for Chawton House and support its primary mission to raise awareness and increase understanding of the early women writers who preceded, inspired, and influenced Jane Austen.
Our Story
The North American Friends of Chawton House (NAFCH) is an official charity registered in the USA and Canada; we are a non-profit tax-exempt 501(c)(3). We exist expressly in order to raise funds for Chawton House and support its primary mission to raise awareness and increase our understanding of the early women writers who preceded, inspired, and influenced Jane Austen.
Chawton House in Hampshire, England, is “The Great House” formerly belonging to Jane Austen’s brother Edward Austen Knight. It is just up the road from the cottage (“Jane Austen's House”) where she resided for some years. Jane regularly walked up to the Great House during her years in Chawton in order to dine there with family, spend time with her motherless nieces and nephews, explore the gardens, and worship at St. Nicholas Church next door.
Until 1992, the estate remained the Knight family home. Chawton House still safeguards the Knight family’s books, paintings, and antiques, but it also contains an extraordinary collection of works written by early women writers and historic portraits of notable women. These were assembled by American philanthropist Sandy Lerner, co-founder of Cisco Systems and Urban Decay Cosmetics, after discovering how understudied and uncollected many early women authors were.
Lerner also funded the restoration of the property and oversaw its transformation into an academic center that opened in 2003. Since then, hundreds of scholars have attended conferences at Chawton House or used its research library to study and write about Jane Austen, the women who shaped the literary world she knew, and the women writers who succeeded her.
Since 2017, Chawton House has run independently and added robust public-facing programming to open the property to a wider audience through exhibitions, online lectures, reading groups, and seasonally themed house and garden tours.
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Chawton House currently covers about 80% of its annual budget through these activities but depends on its own fundraising and that of NAFCH to close that gap and to cover the costs of one-time projects. Please join us. Become a Friend of “The Great House,” its lovely rooms and historic garden, and the many early women writers, including Jane Austen, whose legacy and works reside within.
​​​Many thanks,
Linda Troost
President
“I never walk up the drive to the Great House without thinking of Jane Austen walking there before me. Over the years, Edward, who had several houses, came to spend more time at Chawton with his family, which of course I attribute largely to Jane's presence.​”
~ Isobel Grundy
teacher, scholar, author
Board of Directors
Linda Troost, PhD
President
Deborah Barnum, MLS
Pam Braak, CPA
Collins Hemingway, MA
Isobel Grundy, DPhil
Diana Lovell, PhD
Joy Prevost
Laura Rocklyn MFA
Carole Stokes
EMERITUS BOARD
Janine Barchas, PhD
Inger Brodey, PhD
Linda Dennery
Roberta Gay
Janet Johnson
Gina King
Cheryl Kinney, MD
Sandy Lerner, OBE
Joan Klingel Ray, PhD
Paul Savidge, JD
Kerri Spennicchia, MSLIS
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