The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is an educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington in San Marino, California, USA. In addition to the library, the site houses an art collection strong in English portraits and French eighteenth-century furniture and botanical gardens that feature North America's strongest collection of cycads.The Last Full Measure of Devotion: Collecting Abraham Lincoln
Feb. 7–April 27, 2009
Library West Hall Mounted in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln (1809 –1865), “The Last Full Measure of Devotion: Collecting Abraham Lincoln” will present the letters, manuscripts, printed works, photographs, and ephemera of Lincoln as objects of deep reverence, relentless pursuit, and varying and often hotly contested interpretation. The exhibition will showcase The Huntington’s significant Lincoln holdings, which rank with the collections of the Library of Congress and the Presidential Library of Illinois as the most important in the nation.
Huntington Art Gallery
Once the house of Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and his second wife, Arabella (1850–1924), the Huntington Art Gallery opened in 1928 displaying what was then the greatest collection of 18th-century British art in the country, including the celebrated Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough and Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence. Since then the collections have grown enormously and now contain many great works of art of the Italian, French and Netherlandish schools, as well as a much broader range of British art and design from the 17th to the early 20th century.
After a $20 million renovation, the gallery offers visitors an enhanced experience with one of the finest collections of European art in the nation as well as a more accurate sense of the lifestyle of one of the most prominent millionaires of the early 20th century. In addition to a thoroughly updated infrastructure, the refurbished mansion includes 5,300 additional square feet of public space, new interpretive components, and new gallery presentations of approximately 1,200 objects of European art from the 15th to the early 20th century.
Library Exhibition Hall
At the heart of The Huntington is the Library, which contains more than 6 million manuscripts, books, photographs and other works in the fields of American and British history, literature, art, and the history of science, medicine, and technology. The Library Exhibition Hall showcases more than 300 of the most outstanding rare books and manuscripts in the collection. Among these treasures are the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (c.1410); a Gutenberg Bible (c.1455); a world-class collection of early editions of Shakespeare; original letters of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Lincoln; an unsurpassed collection of materials relating to the history of the American West; and outstanding holdings in the history of science and technology.
Virginia Steele Scott Galleries
Newly Expanded Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art to Reopen May 30, 2009
While Henry Huntington envisioned a collection of American art as early as 1919, his vision was not realized until sixty years later. In 1979 The Virginia Steele Scott Foundation made a major gift to The Huntington in memory of Virginia Steele Scott, art collector, patron, and philanthropist, which included a group of fifty American paintings, funds to construct a gallery to display the collection, and an endowment for its professional management. Designed by Paul Gray, The Virginia Steele Scott Gallery of American Art opened to the public in 1984, inaugurating American as a significant part of The Huntington's collections. Since then, the American art collection has grown dramatically, largely through the support of the Scott Foundation, the Huntington’s Art Collectors Council, generous donations to the collection, and significant long-term loans.
MaryLou and George Boone Gallery
The opening of the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery in March 2000 marked the unfolding of a new chapter at The Huntington, as the gallery created an international class venue for changing exhibitions. Since its opening, The Huntington has been able to undertake major exhibitions drawn from its own collections and to bring exciting national and international exhibits to Southern California from other museums and galleries.
The building itself has a long history; designed in 1911 by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, it was once founder Henry Huntington’s garage, used for family automobiles and to provide living quarters for members of Mr. Huntington’s staff. It took the commitment, vision, and generosity of MaryLou and George Boone to make the transformation of the space from garage to gallery possible.
Levin and Associates, a Los Angeles-based architectural firm nationally known for large scale restorations and adaptive re-use projects, renovated and restored the original building. It had been designed for Henry Huntington by Los Angeles architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, who were also the architects of the Beaux Arts mansion which is now the Huntington Art Gallery, as well as the Library building.
The Mausoleum
A Greek temple dedicated to eternal love
Constructed of Colorado Yule marble, the mausoleum of Henry and Arabella Huntington overlooks the gardens from a knoll in the middle of the orange groves. It was a spot that Mr Huntington loved. Mr. Huntington selected John Russell Pope, one of America’s most distinguished architects, to design the mausoleum in the form of a Greek temple. Pope believed the classic circular peristyle (or double colonnade) and dome were well suited to the nature of the Huntington grounds because it presented a perfect front from every angle, and was a combination of two perfect forms, the circle and sphere. Pope later used a similar design in the construction of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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