Huntington Verso

The blog of The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Art

Mementos of Downton

Mon., May 2, 2016 | Diana W. Thompson
If you're one of the millions of people who watched the British period drama "Downton Abbey," you might be craving a juicy story about a lord or lady right about now. "Downton" led viewers on a rollercoaster ride as the titled Crawley family
Library

Thomas Pennant’s Literary Appeal

Thu., April 28, 2016 | Melissa Bailes
Asked to name the most famous European naturalists of the 18th century, most scholars would probably choose Sweden's Carl Linnaeus and France's Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon. One figure often overshadowed by these contemporaries
Library

Flight Path

Mon., April 25, 2016 | Peter Lunenfeld
As part of my project "City on the Edge of Forever: Los Angeles Beyond the Screen," I've been researching the aerospace industry in Southern California. I've been looking at its impact on everything from revolutions in the shape of surfboards to high-tech art movements
Lectures

What Good is History?

Thu., April 21, 2016 | Kevin Durkin
How important is historical literacy in today's world, where popular culture focuses on the here and now and the milestone events in our nation's past often get short shrift? Two Pulitzer Prize-winning historians recently weighed in on that question
Botanical

Top 10 Water-Wise Plants

Mon., April 18, 2016 | Diana W. Thompson
You've heard the dire news about California's drought. And you've been thinking about swapping out your lawn for water-wise plants. But if you're used to traditional grass and ornamental plants, where do you begin?
Conferences

The Fabricated American Desert

Thu., April 14, 2016 | Lyle Massey
Humans have negotiated the desert for millennia, finding in it equal measures of sustenance, terror, beauty—and, above all, a dwelling place. To explore issues of human intervention in and on the American desert, my colleague James Nisbet and I have organized a conference at The Huntington
Botanical

Bee’s-Eye Views

Mon., April 11, 2016 | Diana W. Thompson
While traveling in the Amazon region of Ecuador, award-winning photographer David Leaser had an epiphany. What if he could use a computer to help him capture images of the tiniest flowers on the rainforest floor and blow them up to dazzling effect in large format prints?
Art

Spirit Boys

Thu., April 7, 2016 | Cora Gilroy-Ware
Wander through any major collection of European art, and you will find them in abundance. Travel to England, Germany, France, Spain, or Italy, and chances are that one will catch your eye. A winged head of curly hair with apple cheeks, sculpted in relief
Beyond The H

Into the Fold

Mon., April 4, 2016 | Diana W. Thompson
One of The Huntington's partner schools is Esteban E. Torres High School in East Los Angeles. Last month, students from their Engineering and Technology Academy visited The Huntington as part of a yearlong program
Announcements

Gratitude

Wed., March 30, 2016 | Susan Turner-Lowe
The first time I walked into the office of Laurie Sowd, The Huntington's vice president for operations, I thought I was in the wrong place. This was the person in charge of multimillion dollar construction activities, security, information technology
Library

Who Was Adah Isaacs Menken?

Thu., March 24, 2016 | Diana W. Thompson
In a library collection as deep as the one at The Huntington, it's not unusual for scholars to encounter items that propel them on new paths of research. That's what happened recently to The Huntington's 2015–16 Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellow, Shirley R. Samuels
Art

The Flowering of Color Printing

Mon., March 21, 2016 | David H. Mihaly
In "The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920"—the exhibition on view in The Huntington's MaryLou and George Boone Gallery through May 9—you can catch a glimpse of a 19th-century innovation