Videos and Recorded Programs

Edward Kamens, professor of Japanese Studies at Yale University, considers the aesthetics of viewing and reading early modern Japanese calligraphy albums—tekagami—in which fragmentary samples of writing by notable writers are brought together for appreciation and display. Focus will be placed on the content of a tekagami in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

Sandy Rodriguez’s YOU ARE HERE / Tovaangar / El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula / Los Angeles is a multilingual map of the greater Los Angeles area, representing the topography, language, flora, fauna, and land stewardship in the region over time and illustrating the movement and histories of peoples who have called—and continue to call—the area home.

This work is...

Peter Sturman, professor of art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discusses the artistic polymath Xu Wei (1521–1593) and his uninhibited style of calligraphy, known as kuangcao, or “wild cursive.” Sturman introduces Xu’s calligraphy—particularly, three scrolls that Xu wrote in an increasingly drunken state during a garden gathering—within the context of the colorful history of that script, which has been associated with wine.

Mary Shelley likened the writing of her famous book to Victor Frankenstein’s making of his creature. In this lecture, James Chandler, professor at the University of Chicago and The Huntington’s R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellow, explores Shelley’s “creature,” in what is now one of the most widely-read novels in the English-speaking world. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus inspired many offspring in the form of myriad...

Authors Kristen Case, Gerald Early, Pico Iyer, and Megan Marshall in conversation with Karla Nielsen, Curator of Literary Collections at The Huntington

Spring 2020 and the onset of a global pandemic saw many writers returning to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden for guidance for living in a constricted space and with a reduced footprint. Beginning on July 4, 1845, Thoreau moved into a cabin on Walden Pond...

Amy McNair, professor of Chinese art at the University of Kansas, explores the calligraphy found in the Lingering Garden in Suzhou, a famous setting for two outdoor formats of calligraphy. Plaques written by friends of the owner identify places and views within the garden, while engraved stone slabs display the owner’s collection of antique calligraphy examples.