Dozens and dozens of hand-drawn letters and notes from centuries past are laid out one on top of the other.

Collectors’ Councils

The Collectors’ Councils play a critical role in supporting The Huntington’s collections, ensuring they will be vibrant for generations to come, and assisting library and art curators in selecting works for acquisition that further enhance the holdings begun by Henry E. and Arabella Huntington. The councils are a convivial group of Huntington supporters who enjoy exclusive events throughout the year, including behind-the-scenes tours of special exhibitions and collections, as well as curator-led trips to institutions and private collections around the world.

Art Collectors’ Council

Founded in 1994, the Art Collectors’ Council meets every spring to select works for acquisition presented by The Huntington’s curatorial staff. Annual dues: $10,000.

November 2021: The Huntington acquired more than 50 important works by a wide range of artists from North America, contributing to a more expansive story of American art and adding hemispheric and global perspectives and diversity to the collection. Beyond the previously announced acquisitions of Thomas Cole’s Portage Falls on the Genesee (ca. 1839) and Kehinde Wiley’s A Portrait of a Young Gentleman (2021), additional works by women, Native American, African American, Latinx, and Latin American artists, among others, joined the collection. In media ranging from painting to photography to quilting, the new acquisitions span more than a century and represent an array of styles. More

Mary Lee Bendolph, Image of Formal Presidents, 2009. Cotton, 81 x 73 in. Copyright 2012 by Bendolph’s Creative Video Services, courtesy of Mary Lee Bendolph. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Mary Lee Bendolph, Image of Formal Presidents, 2009. Cotton, 81 x 73 in. Copyright 2012 by Bendolph’s Creative Video Services, courtesy of Mary Lee Bendolph. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Library Collectors’ Council

The Library Collectors’ Council was founded in 1998. The Council meets annually to select material for acquisition presented by The Huntington’s curatorial staff. Annual dues: $5,000.

April 2022: Five remarkable collections that tell vivid stories from the perspectives of a broad range of historical figures landed at The Huntington recently, courtesy of the Library Collectors’ Council, a group of Huntington supporters who help fund the purchase of new materials to add to the institution’s holdings. The recent acquisitions include illustrations by a mother and daughter who painted botanical specimens in England; materials from members of two U.S. military families; a merchant in Nagasaki on the eve of the city’s opening to the West; a German executioner who doubled as a healer; and photographs of New England’s first family of social reformers, which included Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. More

From botanical albums created by a mother and daughter, Countess Mary Macclesfield and Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane, containing 73 watercolor drawings on parchment depicting plant specimens, some drawn with butterflies and other insects. Manuscripts produced in England between 1756 and 1767. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
From botanical albums created by a mother and daughter, Countess Mary Macclesfield and Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane, containing 73 watercolor drawings on parchment depicting plant specimens, some drawn with butterflies and other insects. Manuscripts produced in England between 1756 and 1767. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Join a Collectors’ Council

To join the Art Collectors’ Council, email Elizabeth Clingerman or call 626-405-2225.
To join the Library Collectors’ Council, email Mona Shulman or call 626-405-2244.