History of Science
Radiant Beauty
Wed., April 25, 2018 | Linda Chiavaroli
E.L. Trouvelot made one big mistake in his life: releasing, by accident, moths he was studying into the woods near his home in Medford, Massachusetts in the 1860s. This error, which had dire consequences for North America's hardwood trees
Audio
Recent Lectures: Nov. 5, 2017–April 5, 2018
Wed., April 18, 2018 | Kevin Durkin
Home to gorgeous gardens, spectacular art, and stunning rare books and manuscripts, The Huntington also offers an impressive slate of lectures and conferences on topics and themes related to its collections. Featured are audio recordings of 24 recent lectures and conversations.
Botanical
Fiber Arts
Wed., April 11, 2018 | Manuela Gomez Rhine
A group of Herb Garden docents gathered in the Botanical Center's headhouse one recent morning to begin work on a textile installation piece they plan to display at the upcoming Fiber Arts Day, taking place on April 14
Uncategorized
The Queerness of Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Wed., April 4, 2018 | Catherine Bates
Shakespeare's Sonnets are enduringly popular. Many people recognize famous lines from the sequence or even know some of the sonnets by heart. Even though the first edition, published in 1609, was not reprinted in Shakespeare's lifetime
Lectures
John Ogilby’s English Restoration Fantasy
Wed., March 28, 2018 | Daniel K. Richter
John Ogilby was born in Scotland in 1600, died in London in 1676, and was, at various points in between, a dancing master, a theatrical impresario, a translator of Virgil and Homer, and a widely read geographer.
Library
George Washington, a Letter, and a Runaway Slave
Wed., March 21, 2018 | Olga Tsapina
On August 26, 1852, Charles Sumner (1811–1874), the junior Senator from Massachusetts, took the floor of the United States Senate to deliver a major speech against slavery. For three hours, Sumner blasted slavery as a barbaric
Uncategorized
David Armitage, Francis Lieber, and Civil Wars
Wed., March 14, 2018 | Linda Chiavaroli
The concept for the book Civil Wars: A History in Ideas, David Armitage's examination of bloody conflicts from ancient times to the present, germinated in the idyllic surroundings of The Huntington.
Uncategorized
Yone Noguchi and Haiku in the United States
Wed., March 7, 2018 | Natalie Russell
Haiku is arguably the best-known form of poetry in the United States. Nearly every schoolchild in the U.S. has attempted to write a poem in three lines of seventeen syllables, arranged in the now familiar 5-7-5 syllable pattern.
History of Science
The Auction Catalogs of Martin Folkes
Wed., Feb. 28, 2018 | Anna Marie Roos
Martin Folkes was perhaps the best-connected and most versatile natural philosopher and antiquary of his age, an epitome of Enlightenment sociability, yet he is today a surprisingly neglected figure.
Art
A Designing Pre-Raphaelite
Wed., Feb. 21, 2018 | Catherine Hess
Before I saw The Nativity by Edward Burne-Jones, I asked myself if The Huntington really needed another design for a piece of 19th-century decorative art? We already had more than 1,000 drawings for wallpapers, carpets
Botanical
Coming Home
Thu., Feb. 15, 2018 | Manuela Gomez Rhine
Before Phillip E. Bloom applied to become The Huntington's Curator of the Chinese Garden, he spent two days exploring and contemplating Liu Fang Yuan, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance—first alone and later with his wife, Yurika Wakamatsu, who had just taken a position as an assistant professor in the Department...
Library
Ancestor in a Japanese Guest Book
Wed., Feb. 7, 2018 | Kevin Durkin
When Akira Chiba, the consul general of Japan in Los Angeles, came to visit The Huntington, he had an opportunity to look at one of the Library's recent acquisitions—a guest book that contains the signature of one of his illustrious forebears.