Watch, Read, Listen

This conference brings together a range of perspectives on medical texts that emphasize their lives as books, bringing together the disciplines of the history of medicine and of book history. Speakers will explore a wide variety of medical genres in diverse chronological contexts, posing questions about change and continuity in the nature of the medical book.

Naomi Tadmor, professor of history at the University of Lancaster and the Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow at The Huntington, discusses the sophisticated system of social welfare developed in 17th- and 18th-century England aimed to assist the poor and its impact on local government and the lives of families and communities.

Rebecca Corbett, Japanese studies librarian at USC, explores aspects of tea culture in Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868) and its use in children’s education. Corbett’s current project focuses on the Buddhist nun and artist Tagami Kikusha (1753–1826) and the transmission of her work in modern Japan. This program is part of the East Asian Garden Lecture series.

Michael Vinson, author and proprietor of Michael Vinson Americana, shares the tale of John Holmes Jenkins III (1940–1989), a Texas antiquarian bookseller, publisher, historian, and gambler who, in 1971, helped the FBI recover a valuable set of original colored engravings of Audubon’s The Birds of America.

L.A. artists Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. were invited to create new works in response to The Huntington’s library, art, and botanical collections, as part of the contemporary arts initiative /five, produced in partnership with the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College. Inspired by different forms of ritual, Caycedo reconceptualized iconic Huntington spaces through Afro-Latino and indigenous spiritual practices and dance, while Ybarra responded to the timeless physical and mechanical processes needed to create masterful drawings and prints.

Jonathan Waldman, author of “Rust: The Longest War,” provides an illuminating look at the unsung heroes—engineers—who are working to keep our modern world from wasting away due to rust, which has been called “the great destroyer.” Rust consumes cars, fells bridges, sinks ships, sparks house fires, and nearly brought down the Statue of Liberty. This program is a Trent R. Dames Lecture.