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In 1964 an audio recording was made by a member of one of the early pioneer families of Los Angeles. In the recording, Belle Buford Thom Collins recalled growing up in 1880s Los Angeles. The interviewee’s father, Cameron Erskine Thom (1825-1915), was Los Angeles County district attorney, mayor of Los Angeles (elected 1882) and a California state senator.

Excerpts from “Reminiscences of Los Angeles by Belle Buford Thom Collins.” Part of The Huntington Library’s collection on California Revealed.

All images are from original photographs in The Huntington Library and are available digitally through the Huntington Digital Library, primarily from the Ernest Marquez Collection.

The Hdoc series examines The Huntington through short documentaries that expose the archives, collections, and stories that make the institution unique.

The restoration of “The Blue Boy” by Thomas Gainsborough is complete. As we await Blue Boy’s public unveiling, Christina Nielsen reflects on the project.

Welcome to The Collections, a podcast produced by The Huntington, hosted by Huntington President Karen  R.  Lawrence. In this first season, inaugurated during the institution’s Centennial, Dr. Lawrence talks with the heads of the library, art museum, and botanical gardens about why they do what they do and what makes their work at The Huntington so deeply rewarding. 

Season 1, Episode 1 – March 23, 2020: President Karen R. Lawrence talks with Sandra L. Brooke, Avery Director of the Library at The Huntington about the Library’s rare books and manuscripts collections, digitization, and what’s gained from having access to the real thing.

Season 1, Episode 2 – March 23, 2020: President Karen R. Lawrence talks with Christina Nielsen, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Museum at The Huntington about the European and American collections and their relevance today, and the importance of art conservation.

Season 1, Episode 3 – March 23, 2020: President Karen R. Lawrence talks with James P. Folsom, the Telleen/Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens at The Huntington about the history of the gardens and how new technology and garden practice is helping the garden prepare for climate change.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Wade Graham, author of American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards, What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are, explores the birth and career of the modern garden in California between 1920 and the 1960s. He charts the prewar origins, postwar evolution, and global influence of this unique garden idiom, from pioneers Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra to modern masters Thomas Church, Garrett Eckbo, and Lawrence Halprin. The program is presented by the California Garden & Landscape History Society.

 
Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind the #1 bestseller Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, discuss their new graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.