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News, stories, features, videos and podcasts by The Huntington.

In America, Nineteen Nineteen

Fri., Oct. 18, 2019

The year 1919 was a tumultuous one in American history. It was also the year that Henry E. Huntington created the institution that bears his name. This conference, designed around The Huntington’s Nineteen Nineteen centennial exhibition, focuses on the social, cultural, and political events that provide a national and international context for Huntington’s remarkable act of philanthropy.

Videos and Recorded Programs

Recasting the King of Flowers in Late Imperial China

Thu., Oct. 17, 2019

Kristen L. Chiem, associate professor of art history at Pepperdine University, explores the role of floral imagery in Qing-dynasty China. Focusing on the peony, Chiem traces how artists used the flower to demonstrate imperial power during the 17th through 20th centuries. Prominently adorning portraits and material objects of Qing emperors and empresses, these images offer insight into gender, ethnicity, and diplomacy at court.

Frontiers

Historical Markers

Thu., Oct. 17, 2019 | Usha Lee McFarling

Author Lynell George reflects on assembling the Huntington timelineAs part of the preparation for The Huntington’s Centennial year, Los Angeles–based journalist and essayist Lynell George spent months delving into the history of the institution

Frontiers

The Ghostly Return of Hamlet

Wed., Oct. 16, 2019 | Zachary Lesser

The Huntington's copy of the first edition of the play upended the play's historyIn 1914, Henry E. Huntington acquired from the Duke of Devonshire a collection of English drama that included one of two surviving copies of the first edition of Hamlet

Verso

In America, Nineteen Nineteen

Wed., Oct. 16, 2019 | Bill Brown

In the summer of 1919, from the pages of the Oakland Tribune, Professor Albert Porta predicted a "terrific weather cataclysm" for December 17—an event that would end the world.

Frontiers

A Founder and a Year

Tue., Oct. 15, 2019 | James Glisson, Jennifer A. Watts

Henry and Arabella Huntington looked to the future by safeguarding the pastAlfonso C. Gomez, Henry E. Huntington’s longtime valet, sat for an interview in 1959, more than three decades after his employer’s death.

Frontiers

The Value of Originality

Sun., Oct. 13, 2019 | Jose Luis Lazarte

A young conservator carefully restores a John Singer Sargent oil sketchFor several weeks in early 2019, three members of a younger generation of conservators worked under The Huntington's senior paintings conservator

Frontiers

Rescuing a Hive of Bees

Sat., Oct. 12, 2019 | Usha Lee McFarling

Beekeeper Kevin Heydman's relocation process is one for the booksBees are no strangers to The Huntington. There are numerous hives in trees on the property that cause few problems