LitFest Pasadena
The first LitFest Pasadena takes place Sat., May 12, at Pasadena’s Central Park and will feature a panel titled “Letting Down Our Hair: Reader-Friendly Books from the Ivory Tower,” with Huntington scholars Daniel Walker Howe, Karen Lystra, Barry Menikoff, and Peter Stallybrass holding forth on how to make a great scholarly book a great read.
Interactive Art
This weekend features a new exhibition opening at Cal State Fullerton that has a special connection to The Huntington’s manuscript collection, and Sunday you can come to The Huntington’s Botanical Center to see the one-day show “Art Matters Encore!”
Bird by Bird
If you consider yourself an amateur birdwatcher, you owe a debt to one of the first professional birdmen, Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian’s first curator of birds. On May 1, Huntington curator Daniel Lewis will speak about his new book, “The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds.”
Music to Your Eyes
“Play Me, I’m Yours” is a public art installation that features 30 pianos spread across greater Los Angeles, each decorated by a local artist, including one of the calligraphers whose work graces a few spots in The Huntington’s Chinese garden.
Expanding the Fellowship
Huntington President Steven Koblik’s election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences comes in recognition of the ways he has helped create a climate where humanities scholarship can thrive.
Woody Guthrie’s “Great and Crowded City”
Woody Guthrie famously roamed and rambled the country in the 1930s and ’40s, writing and singing about the downtrodden. He also found inspiration in Los Angeles. On Sat., April 14, USC hosts a conference titled “This Great and Crowded City: Woody Guthrie’s Los Angeles.”
All in the Family
Historian Anne F. Hyde won the Bancroft Prize last week for her book “Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800–1860.” She joins the ranks of notable scholars who have conducted research at The Huntington on their way to winning the coveted award.
The Legacy of Millard Sheets
On Sunday, March 18, the L.A. Conservancy is sponsoring a tour on “Millard Sheets: A Legacy of Art and Architecture.” It will be followed by a panel discussion on Sheets and his work. It will be followed by a panel discussion on Sheets and his work. Joining several artists and Sheets’ son and daughter on the panel will be historian Adam Arenson, author of a recent article in Huntington Frontiers about one of Sheets’ mosaic artists, Denis O’Connor.
LitFest Pasadena
[EVENT POSTPONED UNTIL MAY 12, DUE TO WEATHER] The first LitFest Pasadena takes place Sat., March 17, and will feature a panel titled “Letting Down Our Hair: Reader-Friendly Books from the Ivory Tower,” with Huntington scholars Daniel Walker Howe, Karen Lystra, and Peter Stallybrass holding forth on how to make a great scholarly book a great read.
Going Public
February 27 is Founder’s Day, the birthday of Henry Edwards Huntington. Each year, The Huntington commemorates the occasion with a Founder’s Day Lecture, and last week Shelly M. Bennett delivered a talk titled “Private to Public: A Family History of the Collecting and Philanthropy of Collis, Arabella, Archer, and Henry Huntington.” You can listen to an excerpt in today’s blog post.
