March 2021
Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Woman’s Life In Nineteenth-Century Japan
Amy Stanley, professor of history at Northwestern University, introduces the vibrant social and cultural life of early nineteenth-century Japan through the story of an irrepressible woman named Tsuneno, who defied convention to make a life for herself in the big city of Edo (now Tokyo) in the decades before the arrival of Commodore Perry and the fall of the shogunate.
Mistresses of the Market: White Women and the Nineteenth-Century Domestic Slave Trade
Stephanie Jones-Rogers, associate professor of history at University of California, Berkeley, draws upon the testimony of formerly enslaved individuals, the correspondence and account books of slave traders, and a wide range of other material (including travel writing, newspapers, and business directories) to show the myriad ways in which white, primarily married, women actively participated in the South’s slave market economy, which involved the buying, selling, and hiring of enslaved people.
ArtBites – The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
ArtBites is a video series of small “bites” with educator and cook, Maite Gomez-Rejon, exploring the nexus between culinary history and The Huntington’s collections. New “bites” are added frequently, check back often.
Black Matter
Namwali Serpell, professor of literature at Harvard, discusses the origins of Afrofuturism.
The Past in the Present: America’s Founding and Us
Professor Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and one of the nation’s premier authorities on the Founding era, discusses how Americans today deal with problematic historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, in the inaugural lecture for the Shapiro Center for American History and Culture at The Huntington.
Growing Up in Downtown Los Angeles During the 1880s
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 later a California state senator.
Waves of Calamity: Race, Water, and Power in the Evolution of Slavery’s Memory
Dr. Sowande’ Mustakeem, Associate Professor of History and of African and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, explores the roles of bonds people, sailors, and slave ship surgeons during the centuries of racial calamity at sea. By centering maritime history and culture in the realities of transoceanic slaving, we gain greater insight into the entangled nature of the human manufacturing system and make greater meaning of the lives of the dead, thereby ensuring the future of collective historical…
Listen/Watch – The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
The Huntington hosts video and recorded programs each program or lecture is based on themes related to its collections. The lectures and conference remain online for on demand viewing.
The Trials of Biddy Mason
Sally Gordon (University of Pennsylvania) and Kevin Waite (Durham University) explore the role of the Mormon Church and the spread of slavery across the continent in the mid-19th century through the life of Bridget “Biddy” Mason.
The Huntington Botanical Gardens
The Huntington is beginning a phased reopening. The Galleries remain closed. Explore living collections of orchids and camellias, a botanical conservatory, a fragrant rose garden, a children’s garden, and more, in 16 themed gardens spread over 120 acres. All visitors, including Members, must reserve tickets online in advance.
April 2021
Made in L.A, 2020: a version
The fifth iteration of the Hammer’s acclaimed biennial bridges East and West with complementary presentations at the Hammer and The Huntington. Works by 30 Los Angeles-based artists are presented at both institutions in two versions that make up the whole. The exhibition features new installations, videos, films, sculptures, performances, and paintings, many commissioned specifically for the exhibition. Many of the featured events are online. The opening date of this exhibition is dependent on L.A. County guidelines for museums to reopen