Verso

In 1865, the El Nuevo Mundo newspaper of San Francisco invited its readers to join in toasting Mexico’s heroes and roasting its imperialist enemies by printing “brindis,” or toasts, performed by women of the Zaragoza Club of Los Angeles and the Patriotic Club of Mexico of Virginia City, Nevada.

Famed British novelist Hilary Mantel died on Sept. 22. Mary Robertson, The Huntington’s former William A. Moffett Curator of British Historical Manuscripts, remembers Mantel’s extraordinary talent and their special friendship.

One of the joys of a garden is that it is a living laboratory, full of opportunities for discovery. Most home gardeners have experimented with plants, learning through trial and error which ones will thrive in their local conditions.

From prints to cartoons, courtroom sketches to photographs, cinema to the internet, “new media” is a diverse and constantly evolving collection of cultural forms and technologies that shape, and are shaped by, the law.

In the predawn hours of May 24, 1861, the 11th Regiment of New York Infantry disembarked from steamers in Alexandria, Virginia. The men, commanded by Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth (1837–1861), who was only 24 years old, met no resistance.

Gasteria species were included in the genus Aloe until 1809, when French physician and botanist Henri August Duval proposed they be moved into the new genus Gasteria, named for the slightly bulbous, stomach-like shape of the flowers.

When you step into The Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science at The Huntington, you are instantly transported to another world. Consistently warm and humid conditions create a pocket of the tropics that houses a grand display of plant adaptations.

In 1736, just four days before Christmas, 5-year-old Mary “Molly” Leigh wrote a formal letter to her father, Theophilus Leigh, Master of Balliol College, Oxford. The first page of the letter is ruled with straight lines to serve as guides for the novice hand, but the second page lacks them. Molly’s carefully shaped letters gently brush the lines in some places and float just above them in others, giving a subtle movement to her focused penmanship.