Earlier this month, Adria L. Imada won the annual Lawrence W. Levine Award from the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American cultural history, Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire (Duke University Press). The awards committee noted: “Through nuanced readings of diverse bodies of evidence—interviews … Continue reading
Category Archives: Profiles
LECTURES | Shedding New Light on Old Manuscripts
With their high-tech lighting equipment and software, Greg Bearman and Ken Boydston can reveal hidden text in old, darkened manuscripts. Called spectral imaging (or sometimes multi-spectral imaging), the technique bounces different wavelengths of light off objects to increase the contrast between ink and parchment, rendering the invisible visible. “Instead of … Continue reading
Tropical Plant Research at The Huntington
The Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science and attendant greenhouse facilities are well-stocked with palms, orchids, carnivorous plants, and many other tropical plants. Members of the aroid family (Araceae) such as Anthurium, Philodendron, and Pothos are especially well-represented and accessible to Conservatory visitors. Their bold foliage and distinctive growth … Continue reading
A Recent Loss
While everyone knows that The Huntington relies on our assortment of volunteers and docents to give tours, answer questions, and be the face of The Huntington, there are some volunteers who choose to remain in the background. They may be too shy to step forward and become docents who give … Continue reading
The Journey Continues
Few authors can boast hitting Amazon.com and the Amazon River in the same month, but Neil Safier is one of them. His 2008 book, Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America, just came out in paperback and can be found on his publisher’s website (University of Chicago Press) … Continue reading
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. Hyde’s path-breaking book … Continue reading
Winning the Revolution, One Teacup at a Time
In July 1776, as George Washington readied himself and his troops for the British attack on New York, he took the time to write a letter to a loyalist merchant who had long supplied him with British and Chinese goods. As British ships approached, Washington meticulously reviewed the list of … Continue reading
LECTURES | “More Like a Sermon”
When Abraham Lincoln completed his Second Inaugural Address in the waning days of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass remarked that “the address sounded more like a sermon than a state paper.” In a lecture at The Huntington Wednesday night, historian Harry S. Stout will explain how that speech was an … Continue reading
The Star Rover
Today is Jack London’s birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to board a ship to see some of the sites that the famous writer explored during his many adventures around the world. The ship in question, the Star of India, is not leaving its dock at the Maritime … Continue reading
EXHIBITIONS | How the West Won Me Over
Matthew Hersch, co-curator of the Huntington exhibition “Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California,” was first drawn to the stars as a boy in the 1970s in Scarsdale, N.Y., where he got hold of books from the public library and read about astronauts, rockets, and space colonies. His … Continue reading