A collage of Verso highlights from 2024. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
At The Huntington, we love sharing stories that provide new perspectives, cultivate curiosity, and ignite the imagination. We invite you to enjoy the following selection of 2024 Verso posts.
Greeting card, 2.5 x 4 in., chromolithographed by Louis Prang & Co., Boston, 1876. Jay T. Last Collection. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
We began the year with a story about eye-catching New Year’s greeting cards from the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History.
R.B. Kitaj, Permit Me Voyage, 1969–1970, screen print, 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. | © R.B. Kitaj Estate.
American artist R.B. Kitaj, one of the major figures in the London art scene of the 1960s, loved books not only for their contents but as tangible objects. The Huntington’s exhibition, which closed in early 2024, showed how Kitaj created an imagined library in screen prints.
Lois Rosson, The Huntington’s 2023–24 Octavia E. Butler Fellow, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Yard, which NASA describes as an “outdoor proving ground for planetary rovers created in collaboration with geologists and engineers to mimic a variety of planetary terrains.” | Photo by Joby Harris.
Lois Rosson, The Huntington’s 2023–24 Octavia E. Butler Fellow, discussed her experience at NASA, her study of astronomical illustrations as extensions of the frontier West, and Butler’s alternative vision of space.
Shannon McHugh, the 2023–24 Molina Fellow in the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences at The Huntington, looks at the book of Petrarch’s poems (RB 104138) currently on view in the Library Exhibition Hall. Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
According to Huntington fellow Shannon McHugh, if the poet Petrarch hadn’t been obsessed with the veil of his muse, Laura, then Taylor Swift never would have sung about Jake Gyllenhaal making off with her scarf.
Read “Petrarch Mania: Love, Poetry, and Fan Fiction in the Renaissance”
Toyon is a stalwart member of the chaparral plant community, providing an important source of food for native pollinators and birds. | Photo by Sandy Masuo.
California natives add a regional flair to gardens and support local wildlife; many birds and pollinators prefer native plants, and some depend exclusively on them. Native plants fit a variety of garden niches, from spectacular specimen trees to ground covers, vines, and colorful annuals.
Huntington President Karen Lawrence (right) revisited the past five years of her tenure and also spoke of promising future projects during a conversation with Lori Bettison-Varga of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County. Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
To celebrate the 2024 Founders’ Day, Lori Bettison-Varga of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence about the past, present, and future of The Huntington.
Eve Babitz and one of her collages. Eve Babitz Papers. Photo by Laurie Pepper. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Before Eve Babitz became a published writer, she was a visual artist, and her chosen medium was collage. Inspired by Joseph Cornell and Andy Warhol, she created the album cover art for Buffalo Springfield’s Buffalo Springfield Again and The Byrds’ Untitled.
White-crowned sparrows are beloved seasonal visitors in the gardens. Photo by Jim Margitan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Inspired by the dazzling array of birds that add beauty and wonder throughout the Huntington gardens, staff member Harrison Hyatt created an interactive map that highlights commonly seen bird species and some of the plants they frequent.
In a conversation with Huntington President Karen Lawrence (right), Carol T. Christ, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, emphasized the importance of pursuing courses of study for love of the subject. Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The importance of empathy and the power of language were recurring themes in a wide-ranging conversation between Carol T. Christ, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and Huntington President Karen Lawrence.
Lun F. Chan, who was Phoenix Bakery’s head baker in the 1940s, prepares a signature strawberry whipped-cream cake. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Phoenix Bakery’s confections have been featured in countless birthday parties, weddings, and other festive occasions. The bakery’s historical archive at The Huntington offers insight into the formative years of Los Angeles’ New Chinatown and chronicles the bakery’s impact.
Visitors touch the replica of Sargent Claude Johnson’s Louis Braille. Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
California artist Sargent Claude Johnson’s wood carving of Louis Braille and students provided a throughline into the artist’s work, the California School for the Blind, and two tactile visitor experiences in The Huntington’s “Sargent Claude Johnson” exhibition, which closed in May 2024.
Lucile Council (left) and Florence Yoch at the garden of Mrs. C. Pardee Erdman, San Marino, ca. 1940. Unknown photographer. Florence Yoch Papers. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Partners both in business and in life, Florence Yoch and Lucile Council completed more than 250 landscape commissions over a period of roughly four decades—projects that included landmark public gardens and private gardens for Hollywood elites.
Habitat loss has contributed to a dramatic decline in the population of Crotch’s bumblebee (Bombus crotchii). This individual was documented foraging on Bog Sage (Salvia uliginosa) near the Children’s Garden. Photo by Sandy Masuo. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
With the arrival of peak bloom season, The Huntington’s gardens attract pollinators as diverse and delightful as the plants they visit. Although many animals perform this role, nature’s preeminent pollinators are insects.
Left: Attributed to Rich Williams (American, 1847–1920), Preserve jar, ca. 1910, alkaline-glazed stoneware. Near Greenville, South Carolina. Collection of Kenneth Fechtner. Photo by Linnea Stephan. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Right: Margaret W. Morley, At the Potters. A potter, ca. 1910. Rich Williams in his pottery workshop. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.
The works of enslaved and freed African American potters in the Edgefield District of South Carolina serve as both personal records of the brutality of slavery and creative acts of resistance.
Read “How Enslaved African American Potters Gave Shape to Their Lives”
Albrecht Dürer, St. Anthony before the Town, 1519, engraving. Edward W. and Julia B. Bodman Collection. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Albrecht Dürer’s travels to Italy and beyond shaped him as an artist, and his influence on artistic contemporaries transformed European art.
Read “Albrecht Dürer and the Significance of Artist Networks”
Linde Lehtinen, the Philip D. Nathanson Curator of Photography at The Huntington, demonstrates how to view stereographic photos with Carleton E. Watkins’ Cactus (Mamillaria Goddridgeyi). Photos by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
It’s possible for anyone with a smartphone to create galleries of captivating plant images. But this is just the latest chapter in a long love affair between photographers and plants—many examples of which are documented in The Huntington’s collections.
Left: Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica, 1543, title page. The title page of the Fabrica features an elaborate illustration of Vesalius performing a public dissection in an anatomy theater. This title page appears in the Fabrica that once belonged to the Los Angeles County Medical Association Library. Right: Jan Stephan van Calcar, Title page for Andreas Vesalius’ “Fabrica,” no date, pen and brown ink, 13 5/8 × 9 3/4 in. (34.6 × 24.8 cm). Edward W. and Julia B. Bodman Collection. The original drawing for the title page by Vesalius’ collaborator Jan Stephan van Calcar (ca. 1499–ca. 1546) is one of the most remarkable items in The Huntington’s medical collections. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Huntington has acquired a 1543 Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius, whose book revolutionized the field of anatomy. The volume’s reunion with the Los Angeles County Medical Association’s collection at The Huntington fosters deeper connections among the Library’s medical treasures.
In response to a series of plant thefts from the Desert Garden in 2021, The Huntington created signage that calls attention to the crime. This approach is serving as a model for other botanical gardens as they collaborate with The Huntington to increase public awareness of the problem. Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Provenance, or the ownership history of a valued item, is generally associated with works of art. But plant provenance has become increasingly important as theft from botanical collections and the wild escalates. The Huntington is focused on raising awareness of the problem.
Harold A. Parker, Spectators watch the American ascend, 1909, hand-colored lantern slide. Gift of Joan Palmer, 2014. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
When photographer Harold A. Parker was on the balloon American, he took what may be the first aerial photographs of Pasadena. But the journey became harrowing when the balloon flew off course.
Left: Yu Zhiding 禹之鼎, Cleansing Medicinal Herbs in the Stream on a Spring Day (detail), Qing dynasty, 1703, handscroll, ink and color on silk, painting, 14 1/4 × 52 3/16 in. | The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Right: Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, Iron Works of Coalbrook Dale (detail) in The Romantic and Picturesque Scenery of England and Wales, 1805, aquatint in printed book, 15 3/4 x 11 3/8 in. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The exhibitions “Storm Cloud” and “Growing and Knowing” trace the dovetailing histories of the relationship between humans and the environment and emphasize the significant role that close observation has played in art, science, and ethics.
José María Velasco, Vista de Tacubaya (View of Tacubaya), ca. 1895, oil on paper mounted to canvas, 11 x 16 1/2 in. (27.9 x 41.9 cm). Photo by Christina O’Connell. | Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
When Velasco’s View of Tacubaya arrived at The Huntington, a few lines of printed text could be seen at the bottom of the work. Infrared reflectography, a process that can detect layers of detail not visible to the naked eye, has revealed what lies beneath the painting’s surface.
Invitation to a “Get Acquainted Breakfast” from the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, 1981. Papers of Edmund D. Edelman. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission serves the needs of the largest urban Native American population in the United States. The Huntington’s records related to the commission’s founding reflect the complex histories of Indigenous people in Southern California.
Read “Establishment of the Native American Indian Commission”
Charles Elachi, former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence during the “Why It Matters” event on Oct. 9. Elachi screened a NASA video of the Perseverance rover’s landing on Mars in 2021. Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Charles Elachi, the former director of NASA and Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, talked with Huntington President Karen Lawrence about the importance of daring to take risks, environmental stewardship, and the mutually enriching interactions among the arts, humanities, and sciences.
Although the best-known hummingbird flowers are red, orange, and yellow, blue flowers like those of this Puya also appeal to the birds. | Photo by Jeff Silverman.
Wild birds enliven The Huntington’s landscape throughout the year. Among the most cherished avian guests are hummingbirds. These tiny, vibrant visitors avail themselves of The Huntington’s abundant nest sites and nesting materials, water features, and food sources.
We can’t wait to share more Huntington stories with you in 2025.
Kevin Durkin is the editor of Verso and the managing editor in the Office of Communications and Marketing at The Huntington.