The Huntington Library

The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (or The Huntington [The common appellation of "The Huntington" may also refer to the Huntington Hospital.] ) 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.

Library and art collection

The library contains an extensive collection of rare books and manuscripts, including a Gutenberg Bible, the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer, and thousands of historical documents about Abraham Lincoln including the papers of the president's bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon. The rare books and manuscripts in the library are among the most heavily-used in the United States. The library holds some 6.5 million manuscripts and more than a million rare books. It is the only library in the world with the first two quartos of "Hamlet"; it holds the manuscript of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, the first seven drafts of Henry David Thoreau's "Walden", John James Audubon's Birds of America, a collection of manuscripts and first editions of the works of Charles Bukowski and many other great treasures.

The library often places these and similar items on view for the general public; however, actual use of the collection is extremely restricted, generally requiring at least candidacy for a doctoral degree and letters of recommendation from known scholars. Nevertheless, these precautions are understandable given the delicate and rare nature of the materials.

The art collection consists of the works of 18th and 19th century British and French artists, and 18th, 19th, and early 20th century American artists, as well as changing exhibitions. The best known works in the collection are "The Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough and by Thomas Lawrence.

William Morris collection

In 1999, the Huntington acquired the collection of materials relating to Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris amassed by Sanford and Helen Berger, comprising stained glass, wallpaper, textiles, embroidery, drawings, ceramics, more than 2000 books, original woodblocks, and the complete archives of Morris's decorative arts firm Morris & Co. and its predecessor Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. ["Crafts Cornered", "Los Angeles Times", 15 December 1999, p. F1] These materials formed the foundation for the 2002 exhibit [http://www.huntington.org/ArtDiv/morris.html William Morris: Creating the Useful and the Beautiful] .

Botanical gardens

The Huntington's superb botanical gardens cover 120 acres (485,624 m²) and the theme gardens contain rare plants from around the world. The gardens are divided into more than a dozen themes, including the Australian Garden, Camellia Collection, Children's Garden, Desert Garden Conservatory, Conservatory for Botanical Science, Desert Garden, Herb Garden, Japanese Garden, Lily Pond, North Vista, Palm Garden, Rose Garden, Shakespeare garden, Subtropical and Jungle Garden and a Chinese Garden (Liu Fang Yuan 流芳園 or the Garden of Flowing Fragrance) now open in the northern end of the property. In addition, a large open field planted with Eucalyptus trees serves as a re-created "Australian Outback." The Huntington has a program to protect and propagate endangered plant species. In 1999 and 2002, a specimen of "Amorphophallus titanum", or "corpse flower", bloomed at the facility.

The Huntington Desert Garden, one of the world's largest and oldest collections of cacti and other succulents, contains plants from extreme environments, many of which were acquired by Mr. Huntington and Mr. William Hertrich (the garden curator) in trips taken to several countries in North, Central and South America. One of the Huntington’s most botanically important gardens, the Desert Garden, idealized by Mr. Hertrich, brings together a plant group largely unknown and unappreciated in the beginning of the 1900s. Containing a broad category of xerophytes (aridity-adapted plants), the Desert Garden grew to preeminence and remains today among the world’s finest, with more than 5,000 species, including cacti and succulent plants, or plants that store water in leaf, stem or root.

The gardens are frequently used as a filming location. Footage shot there has been included in:

* "Mame" (1974)
* "Only Yesterday (Music Video) - Carpenters" (1975)
* "Midway" (1976)
* "Beverly Hills Cop 2" (1987)
* The "Ordinary World" music video by Duran Duran (1993)
* "Indecent Proposal" (1993)
* "Beverly Hills Ninja" (1997)
* "Mystery Men" (1999)
* "Charlie's Angels" (2000)
* "The Wedding Planner" (2001)
* "The Hot Chick" (2002)
* "S1m0ne" (2002)
* "Anger Management" (2003)
* "Intolerable Cruelty" (2003)
* "Starsky & Hutch" (2004)
* "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005)
* "Serenity" (2005)
* "Ned's Declassified Field Trip", the final episode of "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" (2007)
* "" (2007), used as the White House rose garden
* "CSI Miami You May Now Kill the Bride (2008)

Images of Huntington Library

Flowers in Huntington Gardens

See also

* List of botanical gardens in the United States
* The Constance Perkins House, donated to the Library in 1991

Notes

External links

* [http://www.huntington.org The Huntington Library website]
* [http://3dtour.cz/usa-california/san-marino/the-huntington Virtual tour]