Dorset Museum explores Jane Austen's relationship with the sea on her 250th birthday

The relationship of the popular British writer Jane Austen (1775-1817) with the sea and coastal towns is the focus of the exhibition that the Dorset Museum , in the town of Dorchester (southern England), presented to commemorate the 250th anniversary of her birth this year.

Prints, period costumes, Austen's personal belongings and those from her entourage, reconstructions , and models are some of the elements with which the English gallery aims to delve into the novelist's relationship with the coast and how she used it as inspiration for some of her most widely read works.

"He lived in Southampton (southern England). That's probably where he first saw the sea," explained Lisa Johnston, curator of the exhibition, which features items from across the United Kingdom.

This influence, that of his holidays and escapes to the sea , Johnston recounted, can be seen in some of his works, such as in Persuasion (1817), where Anne Elliot, one of his characters, visits the coast, or when Louisa Musgrove gets trapped on a port wall.

With two brothers who were officers in the Navy and having been born in a coastal town, the salt water and seafaring life were decisive in the development of his literary career.

"We have a first edition of Persuasion from Jane Austen's house in Shorten and we also have a small notebook that I'm not sure has been displayed before," Johnston added.

But, without a doubt, the dresses, shoes, and other fashion pieces from the Georgian era stand out among the hundreds of objects on display.

Also on display within the exhibition's marine theme are swimsuits and a curious "bathing machine" : a wooden hut that women, who at the time barely knew how to swim, used to enter the water and take baths that were thought at the time to be beneficial to their health.

This hut, recreated by art students from Bournemouth University, was moved by a horse that put it in and out of the water , aided by cork floats that ensured the women didn't drown.

Visitors can dress up in these Georgian bathing suits and other dresses and shoes, which, along with a full-scale model of a period room, complete an experience that acts as a journey back in time and gives them a glimpse into what Austen must have experienced while imagining her novels.

The exhibition also includes several contemporary paintings that evoke the scenes and atmosphere of a coastal town, as well as portraits of herself, her siblings, and her niece.

Fictional descriptions of locations from her novels and drawings highlight the importance of the sea to Jane Austen and how the sights and society of Dorset can provide insight into her stories.

The exhibition will be on view at the Dorset Museum until September 14, as part of a series of events planned across the country to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth on December 16, 1775.