Videos and Recorded Programs

If a blueprint can help reveal the biography of a building then “a biography of modern Los Angeles” might be a good way to describe the John and Donald Parkinson collection recently acquired by The Huntington.

The little-known cache contains more than 20,000 items, including drawings, blueprints, office records, photographs, and ephemera. Adding dramatically to The Huntington’s growing strength in Southern California architectural history, this acquisition...

Ann Bermingham, professor emeritus at UC Santa Barbara, uncovers the methods used to create British drawings between the 17th and 19th centuries.

As a process of visual thinking, drawing is an art of discovery. This is true both for the artist who uses drawing to create an image and for the viewer who can see in the drawing that process of creation. For both, discovery depends...

There is a unique print found in our exhibition “100 Great British Drawings” that was almost not included. Not strictly a drawing, William Blake’s Hecate or The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy was made using a complex mix of printing techniques, drawing, and watercolor to create a hand-printed work on paper. Melinda McCurdy, our curator of British art, discusses why this is one of the most important...

A time lapse of the 2022 Corpse Flower bloom at The Huntington recorded over a period of about 40 hours. The rare Amorphophallus titanum plant bloomed on June 19, 2022.

Author J. Drew Lanham discusses what it means to embrace the full breadth of his African American heritage and his deep kinship to nature and adoration of birds. The convergence of ornithologist, college professor, poet, author, and conservation activist blend to bring our awareness of the natural world and our moral responsibility for it forward in new ways. Candid by nature—and because of it—Lanham examines...

A gardener noticed a population of weevils living inside a few cycad cones growing on the property and knew it was a big deal. He showed them to one of The Huntington’s botanical researchers who kicked off a project this year to study how the weevils pollinate our Dioon cycads.