Student helps reveal Anne Brontë’s active interest in geology

A student has helped reveal that one of Britain's most famous authors was also a rock collector.

Anne Bront, the youngest of the three sisters, built up a collection of attractive specimen before her death in 1849.

It was thought that the author of Agnes Grey collected items because of their aesthetic value, but researchers have found that she was an informed and skilled geologist during the golden age of science.

Sally Jaspars, who is studying geology as part of her PhD at the University of Aberdeen, mentions her interest in it in her literary works.

She called on the help of Stephen Bowden, from the university's school of geosciences, to analyse the collection at the Parsonage Museum in Howarth, West Yorkshire.

The collection contains flowstone and a rare kind of red obsidian that originated in the area where she worked as a governess, as well as the carnelians and agates.

The Rotunda Museum contained exhibits about the area's geology and was close to where she stayed.

This is the first time that Anne's collection has been described and fully identified, and it will show her to be scientifically minded and engage with geology. She was an intelligent and progressive individual who was in tune with the scientific inquiry of the time.

The research was published in a journal.

The analysis done at the Parsonage Museum shows that Anne Bront had a collection of semi-precious stones and geological curiosities.

Anne's collection of rare and unusual stones shows that she deliberately collected them for their geological value.