 Look and Listen Audio Tours, Videos, and Lectures
Welcome to The Huntington's online collection of audio tours, videos, curator talks, and lectures. The files may be listened to or viewed on a computer or loaded onto an MP3 player (such as an iPod) with podcasting software (such as iTunes, iPodderX, or Doppler) so you can listen on the go!
How to ListenListen to files now by clicking download, or download to your computer or MP3 player and listen later. The Huntington is on iTunes U Download and organize audio tours, videos, and lectures on iTunes U.
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| Chinese Garden [42:15] audio [55 MB] 02.15.08
Experience the inspiration behind Liu Fang Yuan, The Garden of Flowing Fragrance at The Huntington, in this 42-minute walking tour. The garden combines the beauty of nature with the expressiveness of literature to give deeper meaning to the landscape.
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| Huntington Art Gallery [76:98] audio [65 MB] 05.28.08
The Huntington Art Gallery is home to the European art collection, which focuses on works from the 15th to the early 20th century. It consists of about 400 paintings, 300 sculptures, 2,400 objects of decorative art, and some 20,000 prints and drawings. The in-depth Adult Tour highlights some of the 1,200 objects on view in the Huntington Art Gallery; the interactive Family Tour is intended for children and their parents; and the tour on the History of the House helps explain how Henry and Arabella Huntington lived in the early 20th-century residence that would eventually become the Huntington Art Gallery.
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| Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art [53:43] audio [60 MB] 05.30.09
The Huntington’s American art collection comprises some 9,400 objects, including paintings, sculpture, decorative art, drawings, prints, and photographs. They range in date from the early 18th century to the late 20th century. About 500 items are on display in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. In the Adult Tour, collectors, curators, and other museum professionals discuss highlights from the collection. The fun and upbeat Family Tour of highlights from the American art collection is intended for visitors of every age.
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| VIDEOS / SLIDESHOWS
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| The Jay T. Last Collection [6:05] video slide show [00 MB] 10.17.09
Curator David Mihaly highlights several works from “The Color Explosion: Nineteenth-Century American Lithography from the Jay T. Last Collection.” |
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| Central Avenue and Beyond: The Harlem Renaissance in Los Angeles [5:01] video slide show [00 MB] 10.24.09
Co-curators Sara S. “Sue” Hodson and Avery Clayton discuss highlights of the exhibition, “Central Avenue and Beyond: The Harlem Renaissance in Los Angeles.” Hodson is literary manuscripts curator at The Huntington; Avery Clayton was founder and CEO of the Mayme A. Clayton Library. | |  |
| The Maynard Parker Collection [5:20] video slide show [00 MB] 06.30.09
The Huntington’s curator of photographs, Jennifer A. Watts, discusses the magnificent use of lighting, furnishings, and space in Maynard Parker’s midcentury architectural photography, accessible online for the first time.
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| Constable's Great Landscapes: The Six-Foot Paintings [4:49] video slide show [2.77 MB] 02.03.07
Listen to insightful commentary and historic background on the celebrated works of British artist, John Constable. Considered his masterpieces, Constable's canvases are the largest and most celebrated of the British artist’s works. The series includes such well-known works as The White Horse (1819) and The Hay Wain (1821), and The Huntington’s own View on the Stour Near Dedham (1822). |
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| First Freedoms: The Los Angeles Times and the Right to a Free Press, 1881-2006 [3:23] video slideshow [1.73 MB] 02.10.07
First Freedoms examines the ways in which the Los Angeles Times has both supported and influenced First Amendment rights throughout much of its 125-year history. Topics include the paper’s survival and defiance in the face of the deadly bombing of the building in 1910; its Pulitzer Prize in 1942 for advocacy of First Amendment rights for all American newspapers; and its decision in the 1970s to ban pornographic advertising. |
| LECTURES |
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| About Books The Huntington Library’s collection includes printed books from the 15th century to the present. Among its treasures are a copy of Johann Gutenberg’s Bible and the first folio edition of William Shakespeare’s collected plays, published in 1623. In lectures and interviews curators and visiting scholars discuss topics such as book collecting, printing, and the formation of great libraries. |
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| Samuel Johnson and His Famous Dictionary [53:43] audio [40.4 MB] 05.27.09 Loren Rothschild
Loren Rothschild, a noted collector of the works of Samuel Johnson, talks about the life and work of the great 18th-century man of letters who compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language.
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| Sam and Jamie: ‘No Theory Please, We’re British’ [47:03] audio [36.6 MB] 09.09.09 Paul Ruxin
The famous relationship between lexicographer Samuel Johnson and his friend and biographer, James Boswell, is discussed in a lecture by Paul Ruxin. A noted expert on this literary pair, Ruxin is the owner of one of the largest collections of Johnson and Boswell materials in private hands. | |  |
| What is a Book? (Zamorano Lecture) [35:25] audio [27.7 MB] 05.07.09 Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania
How significant are books for the circulation of written texts? The question has become more urgent in the age of digital media, and yet historically books have often been rivaled by other textual forms. Peter Stallybrass, Annenberg Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, explores how marginal the book has been for some of our most famous writers, including Dante, Shakespeare, and Benjamin Franklin.
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| American HistoryThe Huntington’s early American historical collections are important resources for the study of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, the drafting of the Constitution, and the Civil War. Among the holdings are hundreds of autograph letters written by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as well as the manuscript of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. The Huntington can also claim the largest collection of autograph manuscripts of Abraham Lincoln west of Illinois. In conferences, seminars, and lectures, curators and visiting scholars discuss their subjects in depth. |
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| The Hemingses: Writing the Life of an Enslaved Family (Nevins Lecture) [48:17] audio [23.7 MB] 04.28.10 Annette Gordon-Reed, Rutgers University and New York Law School
Pulitzer Prize-winner Annette Gordon-Reed, author of “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” discusses the task of incorporating the life histories of African American slaves into the narrative of the founding era. She is professor of history at Rutgers University and professor of law at the New York Law School. |
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| Lincoln and the West [49:01] audio [37.9 MB] 04.04.09 James M. McPherson, Princeton University
To mark the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, The Huntington brought together a distinguished group of scholars to discusses America's 16th president, his times, and his historical impact. James M. McPherson, the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University, spoke during the conference “A Lincoln for the 21st Century.”
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| Chinese GardenInspired by the centuries-old Chinese tradition of private gardens designed for scholarly pursuits, The Huntington’s Chinese garden—Liu Fang Yuan, or the Garden of Flowing Fragrance—combines the scenic beauty of nature with the expressiveness of literature to give deeper meaning to the landscape. The Huntington organizes a Chinese Garden Lectures Series annually, inviting experts to discuss the design, symbolism, and beauty of Chinese gardens. |
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| Vistas and Visions: Future Avenues of Exploration in Liu Fang Yuan [50:01] audio [36.8 MB] 09.14.09 June Li, curator of the Chinese Garden; and Jim Folsom, Telleen/Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens
June Li and Jim Folsom discuss future plans for The Huntington's Chinese garden. | |  |
| The Language of Flowers in China [50:29] audio [39.0 MB] 03.31.09 Ronald Egan, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ronald Egan, professor of East Asian languages and cultural studies at UCSB, discusses the symbolism of flowers in Chinese literature and art. Plum blossoms, chrysanthemums, peonies, lotus flowers, and other plants were often endowed with humanistic traits. Egan also explores the aesthetic tensions that occasionally surfaced as cultural tastes changed and new floral emblems gained favor. | |  |
| The "Edge of the World" Revisited [1:12:10] audio [66.2 MB] 09.22.09 William McNamera, director of Quarryhill Botanical Garden, Glen Ellen, Calif.
For the past 22 years, conservation biologist William McNamara has made annual treks into the mountains of China, Japan, and India in search of unusual plants. In this lecture, McNamara shares tales from his travels in the species-rich regions of Asia known to plant biologists as the “Edge of the World.”
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| Shanghai Girls [1:00:49] audio [55.5 MB] 06.02.09 Lisa See
Author Lisa See discusses her latest book, Shanghai Girls, with Julie Robinson of Literary Affairs.
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| California and the WestThe Huntington is among the nation’s most important centers for the study of the American West with an unsurpassed collection of materials that spans the full range of American western settlement, including the overland pioneer experience, the Gold Rush, and the development of Southern California. Diverse in scope and range, the collection attracts scholars of the early California missions as well as the aerospace industry. The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West brings together historians and other scholars, students, writers, journalists, and policymakers to investigate and debate the rich history of California and the American West. |
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| “Can We All Just Get Along?" In Search of an Alternative History of the American West (Billington Lecture) [51:08] audio [49.9 MB] 04.06.10 Stephen Aron, professor of history at UCLA and executive director of the Autry Institute for the Study of the American West
Conflict and conquest have long defined the history of the American West. But what of events shaped by concord? Stephen Aron explores episodes in which peoples put aside their differences and the lessons we might take from them.
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| James Mason Hutchings of Yo-Semite [32:30] audio [29.0 MB] 09.27.09 Dennis Kruska
Author and book collector Dennis Kruska gives a lecture based on his new book, James Mason Hutchings of Yo-Semite: A Biography and Bibliography, published by the Book Club of California. Hutchings (1820–1902) was one of California’s most important 19th-century publishers and a tireless promoter of Yosemite, the Sierra, and the wonders of California. |
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| Little Girl Lost: The Kathy Fiscus Tragedy (Haynes Foundation Lecture) [47:45] audio [38.6 MB] 03.30.09 William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
In the spring of 1949, a three-year-old girl fell into an abandoned well shaft while playing near her home in San Marino. For more than 24 hours, local television stations KTTV and KTLA covered the unsuccessful rescue attempt, making it one of the first news events in the nation to be televised outside the station. At year’s end, The New York Times referred to the tragic death of Kathy Fiscus as the single most significant photographic event of 1949. Deverell explores the accident and aftermath, touching on the social and economic history of the region while also explaining how the tragedy revealed both the permanence and vulnerabilities of community. |
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| Democratizing the Beach: From Therapy to Recreation [46:34] audio [34.9 MB] 04.29.08 Robert C. Ritchie, W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research at The Huntington
During the 19th century, beach culture shifted from an emphasis on the therapeutic value of sea water to a growing interest in the recreational pleasures of a trip to the shore. Robert C. Ritchie takes a closer look at the changing world of the beach, including concerns over appropriate fashions. |
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| Early Modern HistoryThe early modern era describes the period in Europe and the Americas between 1450 and 1850.The Huntington collections are particularly strong in Renaissance exploration and cartography, English politics and law in the early modern era, the English aristocracy from the later Middle Ages through the 18th century, and 18th-century British and American military history. The USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute supports advanced research and scholarship on human societies of this era, sponsoring lectures, conferences, workshops, and seminars.
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| Halloween and the Culture Wars [47:28] audio [43.3 MB] 10.26.09 Nicholas Rogers, York University, Toronto
Halloween might seem a childish holiday, but it often has been at the center of cultural conflict, notes Nicholas Rogers, professor of history at York University in Toronto and the Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow at The Huntington for 2009-10. Rogers examines how Halloween has sparked contentious debate on many fronts: about the use of urban space, alternative religious practices, Latino identity, and more.
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| Henry Hudson's Fatal Journey [40:14] audio [36.7 MB] 10.08.09 Peter Mancall, Director of the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute
Historian Peter Mancall discusses his new book Henry Hudson’s Fatal Journey, about the tragic final voyage of the 17th-century Arctic explorer.
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| History of The HuntingtonThe Huntington was founded in 1919 by Henry E. Huntington, an exceptional businessman who built a financial empire that included railroad companies, utilities, and real estate holdings in Southern California.Along with his wife, Arabella Duval Huntington, he amassed extensive library, art, and botanical collections that continue to evolve. Today The Huntington is one of the largest and most complete independent research libraries in the United States in its fields of specialization. |
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| Evolution of a Gift (Founder's Day Lecture) [55:50] audio [42.6 MB] 02.25.09 Steven S. Koblik, President of The Huntington
The president of The Huntington takes a look ahead at the challenges and opportunities for the institution in the next decade. |
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| History of Science
With the 2006 acquisition of the Burndy Library (a collection of nearly 70,000 items), The Huntington became one the top institutions in the world for the study of the history of science and technology. In November 2008, The Huntington opened Dibner Hall of the History of Science, which features the permanent exhibition “Beautiful Science: Ideas that Change the World.” It includes galleries devoted to astronomy, natural history, medicine, and light. In lectures and interviews, curators and scholars explore a variety of subjects in the history of science.
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| Galileo and His Impact on Science and Astronomy [1:06:39] audio [50.8 MB] 09.17.09 Noel Swerdlow, professor of the history of astronomy at Caltech
In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, which concludes in December 2009, The Huntington is presenting a series of four special lectures on the history of this field of science. In the opening lecture, Noel Swerdlow discusses Galileo’s pivotal role in the development of modern physics and astronomy. | |  |
| Burndy Library of the History of Science and Technology [44:05] audio [32.8 MB] 05.24.07
Daniel Lewis, Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science & Technology at The Huntington
Daniel Lewis discusses the newly acquired Burndy Library, including its scope and future plans for its use and development. |
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