On Tuesday, Sotheby’s auctioned off a copy of John James Audubon’s monumental Birds of America, breaking the record for the highest winning bid for a published book. Aside from the $10.2 million price tag, everything else about the book is big. Continue reading
Few authors are more synonymous with the holiday season than Charles Dickens, whose classic tale A Christmas Carol was written in 1843. The Huntington’s literary collections include about a thousand letters by Dickens, as well as first editions and handwritten drafts of literary manuscripts. Continue reading
Simple beginnings. A diversity of tossed out seeds coming up through cut back grasses around fruit trees. Think of a wild forest. What does a person need to do for an undisturbed wild forest to grow? Well, mostly just stay out of the way. A forest does not need to be fertilized, because the cycle of plant growth and decay provides the nutrients needed to maintain productivity. This is how it has been since the first forest. Continue reading
Freezing temperatures are a rare occurrence in San Marino, but when they hit they can be devastating to some of the plants in the botanical collections, including many rare cacti and succulents. In the Desert Garden, heaters are used in certain locations during periods of extremely cold weather to protect some of the most vulnerable and sensitive species that are growing in the outdoor beds. Continue reading