Jane Austen 250th Anniversary Marked at the Grolier Club

A new exhibition opening next month at The Grolier Club will mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen.

Paper Jane: 250 Years of Austen is on view from December 4 through Valentine’s Day, 2026, showcasing the author’s fame through more than 100 objects from the collections of Grolier Club members Janine Barchas, Mary Crawford, and Sandra Clark including rare first editions, manuscripts, popular reprintings, movie posters, illustrations, theater playbills, and other paper ephemera. The exhibition also explores the influence of the Austen family on the writer’s legacy.

Highlights include:

• an 1811 first edition of Sense and Sensibility in its rare original state of plain paper-covered boards with simple paper labels on the spine
• the 1832 First American edition of Elizabeth Bennet; Or, Pride and Prejudice: A Novel (2 vols. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832) which was an Amherst College library copy and features the reactions of its male students in the margins (when Lady Catherine is “displeased,” penciled annotations in multiple hands include “A fig for her displeasure”, “A fig for your comment” and “A poor novel so far”)
• a bright green ultracheap edition of Mansfield Park (Parlour Library. London, Simms and McIntyre, 1851) owned by a woman butcher working in London’s Newgate Market
• the 'Peacock Edition' of Pride and Prejudice, published in London in 1894 by George Allen, with illustrations by Hugh Thomson
• lobby cards from the 1940 Hollywood film of Pride and Prejudice starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier

Also on show is a detailed Austen family book tree detailing more than 25 books written by descendants of Austen’s brothers including memoirs, Jane’s unpublished work and correspondence, Austen family histories, continuations, and plays. Also on view for the first time are four double-miniature watercolor portraits (ca. 1830–1840) of Austen’s great-nieces and great-nephews, children of Austen’s favorite niece, Lady Fanny Knatchbull (née Knight) and Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet.


The Grolier Club will host free public programs including a keynote lecture on Fashions on Paper: The Words of Regency Dress by Dr. Hilary Davidson on December 16 (Austen’s 250th birthday), and a talk by co-curator Janine Barchas on February 14 about the author’s sister, Cassandra Austen.

“When Jane Austen died quietly in 1817, she had not seen her literary star shine much beyond a small circle of elite readers," said the curators. "In 2025, Austen is Hollywood’s darling, while supporting entire Janeite subgenres of creative adaptations, spoofs, and scholarly criticism. The kaleidoscopic mix of objects in the Paper Jane exhibition reflect Austen’s heady reputation as a revered canonical author, whose books simultaneously appeal as accessible, engaging fiction—studied in schools, while also enjoyed as ‘chick lit.’”