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Jane Austen’s Alchemy: Cosmetic Artifice in Austen’s 'Persuasion'

Event
An oil painting depicting a woman with pale skin and brown hair arranged up off of her neck and in curls around her face. She wears a white dress and leands against a red spread of cloth, sitting upright. Behind her is a cerulean blue sky and burnished orange trees.

Wed., Feb. 4, 2026, 6–7 p.m.

Free with reservation

Rothenberg Hall

Reserve
Join Helen Thompson, Northwestern University Professor of English and The Huntington’s Dibner Distinguished Fellow in the History of Science & Technology, for a lecture on Jane Austen’s commentary on cosmetics.
Lectures

How does the history of science help us interpret Jane Austen? How do Austen’s marriage plots, balls, and carriage rides relate to the domain of flasks, distillation apparatus, and laboratory techniques? This talk explores the fascinating practice of cosmetic chemistry in early modern England. By examining recipes for make-up and exposés of the women who used them to fake both beauty and virtue, Helen Thompson shows how women’s illicit chemical and sexual knowledge traveled through literary history to shape the meaning and narrative form of Austen’s novel Persuasion. 

This is the Dibner Distinguished Fellow lecture and is part of The Huntington Research 2025-2026 "Active in the Archive" lecture series.

Know Before You Go

  • A post-lecture reception will take place in front of the lecture hall at the Rose Hills Foundation Garden Court at 7 p.m.
  • Doors to the lecture hall will open at 5:30 p.m.
  • If you are visiting the gardens during the day and plan to stay for the lecture, please note that all guests must clear the grounds when The Huntington closes at 5 p.m. 

Top image: Thomas Lawrence, Lady Jane (Maitland) Long, 1793. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Adele S. Browning Memorial Collection, gift of Mildred Browning Green and Honorable Lucius Peyton Green