The Huntington's Stories from the Library Features Octavia E. Butler’s Notebooks and Charlotte Brontë’s Letters
Octavia E. Butler, entry for November 7, 1978. Manuscript in ink on paper.
The second installment of Stories from the Library opens on December 13 when visitors will be able to enjoy rarely seen materials from across The Huntington Library's collections including Octavia E. Butler’s notebooks and the first schoolbook printed in California.
Running through June 15, 2026, the new From Brontë to Butler and Looking to Learn will focus on women writers’ lives and work, and the development of early education respectively.
From Brontë to Butler draws primarily from The Huntington’s literary archives to illuminate the private lives, creative processes, and personal identities of women writers with Charlotte Brontë and Octavia E. Butler as chronological bookends. The exhibition brings together journals, letters, photographs, and personal items to explore family and marriage, work and gender roles.
Among the highlights is Octavia E. Butler’s handwritten note from November 7, 1978, in which she reflects on her determination to become a better speaker as well as writer.
“Butler was driven to connect with her readers through speculative fiction, and that connection required a deep commitment to her craft,” said Sarah Francis, assistant curator of literary collections at The Huntington. “Her nearly 200 notebooks at The Huntington are full of entries that make plain both her desire to reach others and the careful work underlying that desire.”
The exhibition also features Charlotte Brontë’s letters to her close friend Ellen Nussey, offering glimpses into the novelist’s concern for her ailing sister Anne in the wake of the deaths of her sister Emily and brother Bramwell.
Other objects on view include photographs of Los Angeles and its residents by the novelist and essayist Eve Babitz known for chronicling the city’s cultural life, and a signature hat of Patt Morrison, the longtime Los Angeles Times columnist and author.
In Looking to Learn various printed and manuscript materials will illustrate shifts in teaching methods in England and the United States between the late 18th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition explores how changing ideas about child development inspired educators and parents to incorporate hands-on activities, practical subjects, and play into children’s learning. It also examines how new printing technologies revolutionized the production of colorful, engaging materials designed to spark curiosity.
“What’s taught in the classroom often reflects the values of the society that creates it,” said David Mihaly, Jay T. Last Curator of Graphic Arts and Social History at The Huntington. “And sometimes the student notes scrawled within these materials offer intimate glimpses into those classrooms, into how students related to their lessons and to their teachers.”
Highlights include the first schoolbook printed in California, Tablas para los niños que empiezan a contar (Tables for children who are beginning to count), produced in 1836 by printer Agustin Vicente Zamorano. This marked a milestone in California’s educational history, introducing printed learning materials to a new generation of students.
Other featured materials include richly illustrated wall charts, board games, and lesson books that reflect evolving viewpoints about childhood, morality, and intellectual curiosity. The exhibition also highlights Margaret Bryan, an English educator who pioneered scientific instruction for girls at a time when such subjects were rarely deemed appropriate for them.
The Stories from the Library exhibition series is presenting rare archival materials through various thematic lenses. The first installment, which opened June 2025, featured exhibitions on Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and visionary figures who shaped Los Angeles. Future iterations will explore damaged books and materials, early science and medicine, international relations, and reflections on mortality. The series will continue through 2028.
