The Huntington

Welcome to The Huntington

Plan Your Visit

Library Art Museum Botanical Gardens

Explore the gardens and galleries, conduct research, and learn from the collections.

Plan Your Visit

What's On

Calendar

A gallery with dark red walls and beige text features matted artwork in black frames and a display case with two open books.

Installation view of “Albrecht Dürer: Wanderlust.” Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Albrecht Dürer and the Significance of Artist Networks

Albrecht Dürer’s travels to Italy and beyond shaped him as an artist, and his influence on artistic contemporaries transformed European art.

Installation view of “Albrecht Dürer: Wanderlust.” Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

A tan paper with a title in large font that reads, “In Congress, July 4, 1776, a declaration by the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled.”

Detail of Declaration of Independence, 1776, printed by Ezekiel Russell in Salem, Massachusetts. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Proclaiming Independence

In 1789, historian David Ramsay (1749–1815) marveled that the United States was a nation “born in a day” and that American subjects of a king “became citizens” overnight—a wildly simplified notion of U.S. history that later would be repeated in many a Fourth of July oration. Even though news of the break from Great Britain did spread quickly, by 18th-century standards, it took more than a month to spread the word. The Huntington holds items that reveal the complexity of that story.

Detail of Declaration of Independence, 1776, printed by Ezekiel Russell in Salem, Massachusetts. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Black-and-white photo of person typing with cigarette in mouth.

Joseph Hansen at a typewriter, photographer unknown, 1969. Joseph Hansen Papers. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Joseph Hansen, Detective Novelist and LGBTQ+ Activist

Joseph Hansen, whose novels chronicle significant shifts in gay life between 1970 and the early 1990s, is best known for his series featuring the openly and unapologetically gay private investigator Dave Brandstetter.

Joseph Hansen at a typewriter, photographer unknown, 1969. Joseph Hansen Papers. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.