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News, stories, features, videos and podcasts by The Huntington.
Frontiers
Examining The Blue Boy
Sun., April 1, 2018 | Usha Lee McFarlingA paintings conservator and an ear surgeon talk shopThomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy (ca. 1770) may well be an icon of Western art and one of the most beloved attractions at The Huntington, but now that it is nearly 250 years old, this epic portrait is in need of some tender loving care.
Frontiers
A Botanical Feathered Friend
Sun., April 1, 2018 | John TragerCactus's soft touch provides key to its survivalAs The Huntington’s curator of desert collections, I, along with my staff, care for 2,000 species of succulents, including a vast range of cacti, in the 10-acre Desert Garden...
Frontiers
Counting Extinction
Sun., April 1, 2018 | Daniel Lewis, Ph.D.The last observations of a small Hawaiian birdIn Belonging on an Island: Birds, Extinction, and Evolution in Hawai‘i (Yale University Press, 2018), Daniel Lewis takes readers on a 1,000-year journey as he explores the Hawaiian Islands’ beautiful birds and a variety of topics...
Verso
John Ogilby’s English Restoration Fantasy
Wed., March 28, 2018 | Daniel K. RichterJohn 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.
Verso
George Washington, a Letter, and a Runaway Slave
Wed., March 21, 2018 | Olga Tsapina, Ph.D.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
Verso
David Armitage, Francis Lieber, and Civil Wars
Wed., March 14, 2018 | Linda ChiavaroliThe 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.
Videos and Recorded Programs
Making Art/Discovering Science
Wed., March 14, 2018Steven Shapin, the Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, draws attention to the widely held view that artistic productions are “things made up” and scientific knowledge consists of “things found out.” How stable and coherent are such presumptions? Shapin discusses examples drawn from 19th-century biology and from 20th-century and contemporary art.
Verso
Yone Noguchi and Haiku in the United States
Wed., March 7, 2018 | Natalie RussellHaiku 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.