Verso

In 1736, just four days before Christmas, 5-year-old Mary “Molly” Leigh wrote a formal letter to her father, Theophilus Leigh, Master of Balliol College, Oxford. The first page of the letter is ruled with straight lines to serve as guides for the novice hand, but the second page lacks them. Molly’s carefully shaped letters gently brush the lines in some places and float just above them in others, giving a subtle movement to her focused penmanship.

In the botanical world, the Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan Arum, has been an A-list celebrity. The Huntington first acquired one in March 1999, and five months later, the Scott Gallery Loggia was the site of the first recorded flowering of Titan Arum in California.

In arid 21st-century California, April arrives at the tail end of the rainy season, which concluded this year with a water shortage emergency announcement. By the time state officials released the statement on April 27, The Huntington's Botanical and Facilities staff members, who closely monitor rainfall and water consumption throughout the year, had already prepared a detailed water conservation strategy.

June is a wonderful time of year at The Huntington: The flowers are in bloom, the gardens and galleries are bustling with visitors, and a fresh cohort of scholars are once again poring over our world-class collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, paintings, prints, and much more.

A woman lies naked on the ground, warmed by the sun. The organic lines of her body echo the color and curves of the stone beneath her, and she seems to merge with her environment. The central image is flanked by two photographs of desert bunchgrasses and California fuchsia plants, whose tendrils and leaves cast painterly shadows. This work was created by American photographer Laura Aguilar (1959–2018).

Robert Hori, the gardens cultural curator and program director at The Huntington, was invited to serve as guest curator for an exhibition at the Portland Japanese Garden. The collaborative result is “Gifts from Japan: A Horticultural Tale Told through Botanical Art,” an exhibition that focuses on the intersection of garden arts, horticulture, and botany through a selection of botanical illustrations from The Huntington, the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California, and invited botanical artists from Japan. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of time that people spent focused on screens was an issue of concern. Sarah Wilson of the Autry Museum had an idea: bring together museum education staff to find an innovative way to serve the needs of children and families beyond online learning.

Miki Hayakawa’s From My Window—on loan from the collection of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra in The Huntington’s Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art—captures a specific place and time.