The Huntington beckons people from all walks of life with its extravagant displays of art, exotic horticulture, and just plain culture that is still astounding. They view every aspect of the exhibitions with awe. An Asian-American couple strolls through the Chinese garden, pointing at different camellias to highlight the vivid colors. In the art exhibit, a teenager, Hispanic couple giggles in front of a set of three George Washington paintings. A bride and groom frolic through the North Vista lawn as the photographer captures every moment of their joyous celebration.
While the Huntington maintains a reputation for the majestic and the picturesque, there is more to it than most perceive at first glance. Just when you think you saw the most incredible sight such as John Milton’s first copy of Paradise Lost, you turn around to find John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, a 24-inch book with life-like drawings of birds. Anyone can walk on a tiled path without knowing the cultural symbolism in the design. Just when you think you find or learn something interesting or strange, you turn around to find something even more thought-provoking. Everything, from the arrangements of the displays to the bizarre findings in the in the collections, has a mystery to be uncovered or a story to be told. The Huntington is an enigma and attempting to learn everything about it is to go on an intellectual and cultural adventure through the gardens, the galleries, and the library. Beyond the public prestige is a plethora of art, literature, and erudition collected from diverse cultures around the world and stored in every little detail throughout the Huntington, all waiting to be discovered.
What are the plants up to?
After entering through the Huntington entrance, the first work of art I find is the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science. It consists of a central rotunda room with a left and right symmetrical wing. It almost looks like the White House but glossy. The exterior of the conservatory is completely composed of glass and steel supports with the exception of the stone entrance supported by Tuscan columns. Although it is not transparent, the glass emits a sky blue tint that serves as a gradient to the cloudy sky. On a sunny day, the glass reflects enough sunlight for the blue tint to appear more vivid than the outside sky itself without blinding anyone. The surrounding field of grass is a verdant, manicured lawn that further emphasizes the conservatory’s soft color. The natural surroundings and vastness of the conservatory made it a shiny utopia teeming with life.
The conservatory is actually a reconstruction of a greenhouse that belonged to the original owner of the entire Huntington foundation, Henry E. Huntington. Before he made his estate open for the public, everything, including his greenhouse, was private. It was built to store his collection of tropical plants. Eventually, it was dismantled but the Huntington constructed a new one in 2005 to resemble the original. The new interior is much larger and houses many more plants. The focus of this new conservatory centers on the educational exhibition entitled “The Plants Are Up to Something.”
As I enter the conservatory, I immediately feel a burst of humidity. The tropical rain forest occupies the entire rotunda with palm trees stretching to the very top of the glass ceiling. Although light penetrates the room, overarching trees and branches shelter us from the light. The smell of foliage and rainwater dominates the air. Puddles punctuate the concrete floors and ramps that surround all the plant life.
What makes this conservatory unique is its interactive quality. I try out an activity called Rain Forest Spices: Plants with Flavor. There are two squeeze bottles, each with a clue written on a card above them. The objective is to squeeze the bottles and guess the scent. You flip the clue card to reveal the name of the scent. After squeezing the first bottle, a potent aroma of coffee beans overwhelms my nose. This activity was a “fun fact” to show children where certain spices originate. This activity is simple enough for any child walking by to quickly try out. The overall goal of these simple, cordial activities is to educate the children and show them that plants exist in this world not just as “green furniture” but in everyday life. Plants are a culture in themselves.
The Plant Lab in the east wing of the conservatory provides more observational activities. The room is surrounded with tables with microscopes, video scopes closing in on the very tips of plants, a transparent glass that shows how the roots grow in the soil, and much more. One of these activities is “How Sweet Is It?” The directions require the visitor to use a refractometer to measure different drops of nectar and measure the sugar levels. A graph is provided for the visitors to check if their results for the provided nectar samples are correct. The goal is to learn that different nectars contain different sugar levels that determine whether or not a pollinator such as a bee will be attracted to it. Another goal is to augment graph reading skills. The diction in the directions and the use of expensive equipment encourages children and their caregivers to work together, creating a learning environment for entire families. The conservatory acts as a sort of teacher for its visitors, encouraging people to not only observe but to learn about the plants and their scientific value.
As I leave the conservatory, I observe a little girl and her father working on some of the activities in the lab including “How Sweet Is It?” The little girl giggled at her father as she read the results, “Aww dad! We were so close!” Her father replied with a light yet joyous laugh.
Where the Three Friends Roam
The Huntington occupies 207 acres of San Marino land. Approximately 120 acres are used to recreate a variety of gardens including the desert garden, herb garden, Australian garden, Japanese garden, Shakespearean garden, and much more. Exotic gardens used to be a way for the wealthy to display their class and taste for others to see. Starting in 1904, Henry Huntington and his landscape gardener, William Hertrich, began designing these various gardens and cultivating exotic plants acquired from plant collectors. Out of all the gardens at the Huntington today, the Chinese garden is the most astounding in all of its historical and cultural content.
The Chinese garden consists of a large pond that flows out towards all the different plantings and miniature islands on which are built different Chinese structures. The pond reflects a greenish hue with a quality that is so pristine that the bottom of the pond can be seen clearly. The rushing of the waterfall and the smell of fresh water fills the senses. The common smell of fossil fuels and cigarette fumes that I always smell in Southern California are nowhere to be found. Everything in this garden was simply clean. I feel as if I have been transported to China. However, I learn that China was transported here.
June Li, curator of the Chinese Garden, opens my eyes to the authenticity of the design. The Chinese garden is based on 17th century Suzhou scholar gardens which Li states to be the most classic form of garden design. “Suzhou gardens are usually refined, have white walls, grey roof tiles, nothing too garish, and we just like that sort of refined scholarly style.” In order to get the authentic look of the Suzhou design, the Huntington worked closely with US contractors and a Chinese landscape company in Suzhou. While Chinese architects prepared the supplies and designs, the Huntington translated the Chinese designs to fit its needs. What Li means by translation is not the languages but the choice of design. The blueprints in China, for example, do not consider situations such as earthquakes which a California safety code must enforce. After China shipped the parts to the Huntington, the US contractors created an infrastructure with reinforced steel to form the shape of the Chinese structures. When the Huntington received the materials from China, they placed the wood material around the infrastructure like a wrapping. Once everything was assembled, the Chinese garden was complete.
Although the Huntington is known to be a cultural institute that has preserved art and agriculture from around the world since the early 1900s, the Chinese garden was actually created in 2008. Around 1900, the Western Powers were interested in oriental cultures. However, Westerners found Japanese culture to be more captivating than Chinese culture. They viewed Japanese gardens with immense beauty and sophistication. The wealthiest Americans at the time, including Henry Huntington, had Japanese gardens developed on their estates. During Japan’s cultural expansion, China was mainly isolated due to the Boxer Rebellion, the rise of civil war, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. China was not a point of interest for Henry Huntington.
Although Chinese culture and history was originally neglected, Chinese plants had always flourished throughout the Huntington including plums, apricots, cherry blossoms, camellias, and bamboo. Around the 1970s, Chinese books and manuscripts became part of the collection; however, the archivists at the time paid little attention to them. Because some aspects of Chinese culture came to be at the Huntington, the director of the botanical gardens in the 1980s considered constructing a Chinese garden. However, insufficient funds were an impediment for this project. This issue was resolved by one generous donation. Peter Paanakker, a former overseer at the Huntington, expressed interest in a Chinese garden. When he died in 1999, he left $10 million which he intended to be the seed money for the construction. After years of preparation and planning, the Chinese garden opened to the public in 2008.
In general, structures are a very important concept of the Suzhou gardens. According to Li, “Buildings are places for people to be sheltered, to enjoy the view. We are sitting in here [in the Hall of the Jade Camellia] and we can look outside or we can stand on that terrace and we can look and enjoy the view. Even if it rains or snows, or it’s too sunny, you are sheltered. Bridges, corridors, public corridors, terraces, and halls all have these openings to view them.” Everything in a Chinese garden is constructed as a way to heighten the experience of nature watching. Of course, the buildings are only the seats and stands from where you view the main attraction: nature.
Li and I walk along a corridor to a terrace placed on top of a waterfall. The white walls form a rectangular window that directs the eyes towards the view. We look in the distance to view the waterfall flow into a river rushing down towards a pavilion in the distance. Surrounding it is foliage that shrouds the landscape as far as the eye can see. The configuration of the window along with the view makes the entire setting look like a painting. “We usually call it borrowing the view that is out there and bringing it into the garden.” As we admire the view, we take in the aroma of the trees, the camellias, and the fresh water. The terrace that we stand on is called Qing Fen Zhai, the Studio of Pure Scents. “When you stand here, you can actually get wafted by the fragrance of trees and flowers and all kinds of wonderful smells,” Li says.
Flowers, of course, are significant not only to Chinese gardens but to Chinese culture altogether. However, most Chinese plant life here in the garden is displayed on the side of corridors or near the ponds, obscured by buildings. They include gardenias, lilacs, forsythias, and the camellias. However, plants have an important role in Chinese culture in both presence and symbolism. A structure that possesses elegant design and symbolic value is the San You Ge, the Pavilion of the Three Friends.
The Pavilion of the Three Friends refers to the plum blossom, the bamboo, and the pine. They are known as the three friends of the cold season because they are the first to bloom in the spring. Even in early spring when the snow still falls and the ice only just begins to melt, the three friends are able to exist. “They represent tenacity and courage. And they are very often used as political symbols like fighting against the Mongols… The Imperial family used them a lot in paintings and in various decorative arts to signify the courage of fighting against these invaders.”
The pavilion has a white base and a double layered roof on top supported by red pillars. The roof is made up of grey tiles and the corners curve upward to form sharp edges. As Li guides me into the Pavilion of the Three Friends, she points up to the ceiling to reveal special carvings. The overall shape is a hexagon with a circle in the very center and two outer rings surrounding it. At the very center is a carving of plum blossoms because they are the first to bloom. Then the next layer is smooth and empty. The outer layer is a carving of bamboo that is being stretched in to fill out the outer ring. Finally, on the corners of the hexagon shape are the pines.
The three friends is a motif that goes beyond the pavilion. As Li leads me along the pond, I observe the tile patterns on the ground. To me, it is simply a grey, granite path with triangles. At the each of point of the triangles, there is a shape that resembles a star with rounded ends rather than sharp. At first look, I think to myself, “That is neat design.” Li expands my knowledge. The rounded stars are actually plums and the lines that connect them which create a triangle shape symbolize cracking ice. When the winter ends, plums are the first to grow. Every detail in the Chinese garden, even the ground I step on, means something.
Into the Lord’s Palace
While Henry Huntington found passion in literature, his wife, Arabella Huntington, had an interest in Medieval and Renaissance artwork. Together, they gathered a huge collection of European art. The Huntington today has three main art galleries that display some of the world’s most notable art pieces: The Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, the Boone Gallery with its changing exhibitions, and the Huntington Art Gallery which has the most history and culture.
In 1911, Henry Huntington hired the architecture firm Hunt and Grey to construct his mansion on the San Gabriel Valley estate in Southern California. Henry and Arabella wanted an atmosphere of elegance and sophistication for their home which led them to choose Beaux-Arts architecture for its association with King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Today, the mansion has transformed into the Huntington Art Gallery housing Henry and Arabella’s collection of French and British art pieces.
The structure stands between the classic Greek sculpture garden and the rose garden like a white palace housing a lord. The exterior of consists of handcrafted white walls that are smooth to the touch and a majestic sight for the eyes. It is symmetrical with the perfect balance of Corinthian columns and statues of Greek goddesses that stand like guards to the estate. The interior looks like a scene from Downton Abbey but minus the drama. The wooden floors and handcrafted walls have a gleaming bronze that is refined and new. A single room is lightened by a luminescent chandelier with, dangling, shimmering glass. Carpets, chairs, and couches with damask patterns fill the rooms to simulate a homelike and reverent environment. The vastness of this structure is felt through the echo of my footsteps through the corridors and the rooms.
The dining room display is surrounded by white walls and very few paintings. The golden drapes are opened, allowing sunlight to pierce through the windows. This architectural design makes the room appear spacious and welcoming. The glossy dining table sits in the center of the room with a pair of gold candelabras and eight dinner plates set up for all eight bronze-laced chairs. It feels as if a group of wealthy socialites can enter the room any minute and enjoy a social dinner gathering.
When I finally get to the display rooms, the space is accessible for visitors to roam and approach the paintings on the walls. The rooms are dim with tiny lights beaming onto the paintings. The light accentuates the images on the paintings so the visitor can gaze into it. Staring into the lit face of Thomas Lawrence’s “Pinkie” makes the experience very intimate. One of the highlights of the gallery includes Thomas Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy.” The painting itself has a dark, ominous background with faded trees and a portentous sky. Although dark, the background manages to have a quality of beauty. In the very center stands a boy wearing all blue. The dim light accentuates the boy’s rosy cheeks and crimson lips. Despite the blue’s conspicuous appearance, my eyes are drawn to his face. At that moment, I have no words or even thoughts. I simply stand and stare into his face expecting him to say something even when I know he physically cannot. Although I know little about art, something draws me to the Blue Boy. Some consider this painting to be the “Mona Lisa” of the Huntington because it is a display that everyone wants to see. After this experience, I understand why.
After the death of Arabella Huntington in 1924, Henry began construction of the Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Gallery in the west wing of his library. The walls were coated with Italian Baroque red velvet and decorated with gilded bronze candelabras. Decorative desks carried enameled porcelains under the dim lighting of the chandeliers. Every wall had an arrangement of European paintings including aristocratic French, Italian, and Northern Renaissance artwork. This memorial was completed with a total budget of $31 million. The Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Gallery remained intact until 2007 when it was moved into the Huntington Art Gallery. Today, some of the highlights of the Memorial Art Gallery include five Beauvais tapestries from the Italian Village Scenes, an assortment of Sèvres porcelain, and Jean-Antoine Houdon's life-like bronze statue of Diana the Huntress. Within all the interior design of every room and décor, there is a story to be told.
The Main Man
When visiting the Huntington, it is impossible not to notice that is was once the incredibly wealthy domain of one of Southern California’s richest men, Henry Huntington himself. Of course, he elevated himself to wealth through business and innovation. He was originally born in Oneonta, New York in 1850. He lived a modest life working in his father’s general store. However, he was not entirely underprivileged.
Henry was the nephew of Collins Huntington, one of the founders of the Southern Pacific Railroad, at a time when railroad barons were among America’s wealthiest industrialists. Because of this relationship, Collis became a mentor to Henry and gave him his first job as a supervisor for railway construction in Tennessee and Kentucky. Eventually, Henry worked his way up and became the superintendent of the railway subsidiary. In 1892, Collis, then being the president of the Southern Pacific Company, brought Henry to San Francisco as his personal assistant. After the death of Collis Huntington in 1900, Henry was bequeathed a large sum of Collis’ fortune. Henry became more and more independent and began to make a name for himself apart from his uncle.
On a visit to Southern California, he met James de Barth Shorb who owned a huge ranch near the growing city of Pasadena. Henry was attracted to both the potential business opportunities in the Los Angeles area and the beauty of the San Gabriel Valley. In 1903, seven years after Shorb’s death, Henry purchased Shorb’s former property. His first contribution to Southern California was the creation of the Pacific Electric Railway on the Los Angeles streets. Later, his ongoing success in business allowed him to accumulate massive wealth and create a huge, cultural contribution to Southern California. As he got older and richer, he began to pursue other passions.
In 1910, he sold most of his shares in the Pacific Electric Railway so he could settle down. He married the widow of Collis Huntington, Arabella, in 1913. They lived a quiet, peaceful life together. Their occasional guests were treated with the finest caviar, alligator pears (avocadoes), seafood from the Southern Californian waters, garden-fresh vegetables, and the most superb truffles. Henry himself was a member of dozens of wealthy clubs in both California and New York but did not devote his time or his patience to any of them. His perpetual devotion had always been book collecting. Henry and Arabella spent the rest of their lives collecting rare books and artworks and planting and developing their diverse gardens. Together, they created a melting pot of knowledge, art, and beauty in Southern California.
Henry wanted his collection and his name to inspire others in Southern California and from around the world to pursue knowledge and education. Before his death, he signed a deed of trust that left his property and collections to a nonprofit trust that was to guarantee that the estate would become a research institution for scholars. The institute opened in 1928, one year after he died. Today, the Huntington Library is an important source for a cornucopia of research.
Beyond the Halls, Into the Shelves
The giant library is incredibly wide with white walls and a red roof. The style reflects a simple Mediterranean Revival architecture with its terracotta tiled roof and stucco white exterior. The very front contains pairs of ionic columns along the wall. Overall, the library is not at all flamboyant but rather it possesses elegant simplicity. The library is separated into two sections: the exhibition hall which is for public viewing and the rest of the library which is restricted to everyone except employees and scholars.
Entering through the door and into the exhibition hall is like walking into an Ivy League school but much more welcoming rather than exclusive. The walls and floor are wooden and illuminated by the chandeliers above. The atmosphere is very cozy; at one point I was expecting to find a fireplace and a loft chair in which I could read. Along the walls are display cases with treasured books such as the Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The cases are covered with glass and are dimly lit with small lights inside. Attached to each case is a telephone-like device through which visitors can listen to a sample of the texts. In the Shakespeare display, for example, a voice takes on the persona of Hamlet and recites the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy in the voice of a dramatic actor. After viewing the exhibition, I ask myself why these specific books and manuscripts made it to the exhibit and not others. What makes the Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, Jane Addams letters, and the study sheet for a Chinese examination more special than the other 7 million manuscripts in the entire library? Karina White, Senior Exhibition Designer and Project Manager, helped me answer this organizational mystery.
In 2013, the library exhibition was redesigned by Karina White and her team of contractors and reopened to the public under the name “Remarkable Works, Remarkable Times.”
“Before, the Gutenberg Bible and Chaucer’s manuscript of the Canterbury Tales were just in big cases by themselves in the middle of the room,” White tells me. “Then there were different cases that were grouped into broad categories. For the redesign, we organized it into twelve different sections that are chronological. We took different periods of time and we looked at what was happening in the world through our collections.” For example, the work of Shakespeare and Galileo are displayed in the same case juxtaposing one another. The purpose is to show that they were both alive and influenced the world simultaneously. Another example is the American history cases. According to White, when most people learn about American history, they learn about the Revolution on the east coast. Many are unaware that the Revolution was concurrent with missionaries spreading Catholicism on the west coast. In the display showcasing copies of the Declaration of Independence, White added materials from California missions to specify that two events were changing America all at once.
This juxtaposition of different works of different minds and cultures reflects the Huntington itself. It takes the most elegant, the most brilliant, the most erudite, and the most exotic objects, works and plants and brings them together for the people of Southern California to admire and learn from. People can only learn so much from simple displays. In order to fully take advantage of the copious knowledge amassed within this library, they must gain access to the whole institute.
Li Wei Yang, archivist in charge of Chinese-American history, welcomes me at the back entrance of the library where only the employees and scholars were allowed. Through a soundproof glass, I observe the first study room of the library. This room is made specifically for scholars to use the rare books. It resembles any library. The lights are bright, giant wooden desks aligned in rows, and scholars sit with notebooks or laptops in front of them taking notes from the books. Some books are physically large, around two or three feet long. Others looked fragile with their pale yellow pages and torn-up covers. Every desk has a camera watching their every activity, and a security guard stands in a corner with his eyes locked on the whole room. Although I cannot hear through the soundproof glass, I get the feeling that it is dead quiet.
Although “library” is in the name Huntington Library, it obviously does not function as a lending library to the public. Its collection is far too valuable. When a scholar checks out a book, they are not allowed to leave the building without returning it. While using the books in the study rooms, they must never use a pen so they cannot stain the rare books. When walking around, they are given transparent bags to carry their possessions so no one can walk out with one of the books. And of course, they go through a security check when entering and leaving the library.
The Huntington has approximately 1,700 registered users who are allowed to use the protected research resources. Usually there are three types of people who can get in: those going into a PhD program, college professors, and independent scholars who are writing books or making movies. These scholars need to sign up online for library access and the Huntington determines if their credentials make them qualified to use their resources. Whenever registered users need to view one of the rare books, “they have to submit requests to the front desk and they will eventually get a view at these priceless treasures,” Li Wei says.
As we walk down the hall, it is incredibly quiet, a silence broken only by the faint sound of people working in small offices. While the exhibition has a glamourous design, the offices are simply plain and not for public view. We turn into a hallway with shelves of books on the sides. These are the reference books. They are part of the collection at the Huntington but are not rare. Nevertheless, they can still be used for research as long as a registered member checks them out and returns them before leaving. Li Wei then shows me cabinets full of card holders which are used to organize all the books by title, author, and date. Although digital records are modern, having card organizers is a good backup in case something goes wrong with the computer system. Regardless, the record of every book collected after 1994 is available only digitally.
Li Wei leads me to the door to the second study room. The door is brown and wooden like the door from a fancy mansion. We both run into an awkward moment when we find that the doorknob to the door was gone. We go through a few more corridors to another entrance. As soon as I walk in, I experience a new level of quiet. If a pin dropped on the ground from the other side of this room, I would surely hear it. Unlike the first study room, the interior of the second study room resembles the library exhibition but with rows of giant bookshelves, rows of tables with scholars reading, and carpeted floors rather than marble. When we first enter, six scholars draw their eyes at us with looks of confusion and irritation. Either they really do not want us to talk or we just broke the sound barrier when we opened the door. We leave trying to be as quiet as possible. Li Wei responds, “As you can see, it is quiet in there.”
The Huntington Library houses over 420,000 rare books and almost 7 million manuscripts. Much of the material in the collections has been donated to the Huntington. “We mostly take in books and papers that are considered rare and related to our existing collecting area,” Li Wei explains, “In my case, the topic is Chinese-American history and a little bit of California history as well.” Usually families have documents or old books that contain historical content and value that were passed down to them generation to generation. If they do in fact have historical value, then the Huntington accepts it for the collection. “When people donate collections, it means that we have a responsibility to keep it forever here to use for research. We also have to process the collection to make sure the content is preserved and that they are kept in a climate-controlled room for the rest of their lives.”
Li Wei guides me into an office to show me how processing looks like. We step into the office of Brooke, the Huntington’s aerospace-science archivist. Every archivist works in an office shared with others. Different ones vary in numbers. The office is filled with tables and shelves full of boxes. “Whenever a collection comes in, they come in a big cardboard box. These are all collections.” He opens one of the boxes to show me folder dividers separating different documents. “These are basically documents and papers, correspondent letters, anything that the person or organizer accumulates all the time.” Brooke interrupts, “Then we make it look all pretty.” Li Wei looks over and smiles at Brooke. “Yes, [we] organize it, we inventory them. So basically what she is doing is establishing intellectual control over these collections so when researchers come in, they have a way of knowing that this collection is here and that we have a way to retrieve the collection for them if they are searching for particular files based on dates, subject, whatever, who wrote the letter. All that.”
While the exhibition hall displays works such as the Canterbury Tales and the Gutenberg Bible, lesser known and bizarre manuscripts are being processed behind the scenes. This includes an autograph letter from George III to Thomas Townshend expressing his angry and bitter opinion on the American Independence; the earliest version of the US Constitution which was owned by George Mason and was secretly printed for the delegates with wide margins for note taking; a letter signed by Abraham Lincoln and written to James N. Brown, in which Lincoln challenged the notion of slavery; the labor contract of a Chinese laborer named Ai from Virginia dated 1849; Charles Dickens’ autographed letter to James T. Fields; one of the first prints of Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (the first book to be printed in English in 1474); Albert Einstein’s letter to George Ellery, and even a tin box containing a signed note and cubes of a wedding cake from the marriage of Edwin Carpenter Sr. and Cora Francis in 1915, donated to the Huntington in 1995 by former Huntington employee Edwin Carpenter Jr. before his death. The cake was not discovered until 2013 by a volunteer at the Huntington.
Li Wei himself made an interesting find for the collection this past summer. In 1403 during the Ming Dynasty in China, the Yongle Emperor commissioned a set of encyclopedias containing information on all Chinese culture and knowledge. The Yongle Encyclopedia set had 11,000-plus volumes each containing 22,000-plus chapters. It was like the internet for all the knowledge of Chinese culture at that time. In the 1560s, the new emperor ordered his the scribe to create a copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia in case the original was ever lost. Eventually, through unknown circumstances, the original was lost. Due to looting, poor management, and war, the copies were eventually lost as well. Today, about 419 volumes have been rediscovered throughout the world.
In 1968, the Huntington received a donation of a Chinese book. At the time, the Huntington paid little attention to Chinese history so the book was placed on a shelf labeled rare and forgotten. In 2014, an employee directed Li Wei’s attention to this book, realizing that it had never been processed.
“It was brought to my attention, Li Wei said, “So I spent about a month trying to do research on it, trying to authenticate it. Eventually, after doing a lot of research, I was convinced that this was actually part of the encyclopedia set.” An expert from the National Library of China came to the Huntington to authenticate it. Since he has seen previously rediscovered volumes, the expert was able to confirm that Li Wei’s book was indeed one of the lost copies. This single copy contains volumes 10,270 and 10,271 of the Yongle Encyclopedia. “This was a big find because it contains a lot of information and knowledge that we have basically lost to history,” Li Wei says, “I think this is one of the strangest things that I have ever come across.”
Preserving manuscripts is not just about adding to a large collection. It is about legacy. It is about discovering and remembering what had happened and saving it for future generations. By giving a manuscript to the Huntington, people are contributing to history because the facts of a police records, the information of an old textbook, the diaries of soldiers at war, and every other piece of writing will live on and become a topic of study and end up in the books of tomorrow; even when the book deteriorates, the history lives on. Everything in the collection of the Huntington becomes historical, educational, and eternal.
Taking It All In
As I leave the Huntington, I pass by a number of signs for upcoming attractions. It has been more than three-quarters of a century since Henry Huntington died and his legacy at the Huntington not only continues to stand but is casts itself forward into the future. His foundation continues to collect and preserve the works of different cultures whether natural or manmade. As I reflect on all the sights and knowledge that I am taking home with me, I make a final visit to the gift shop to observe the visitors. Asian-American, African-American Hispanic, Caucasian, adolescent, and elderly; Each one of them buying their own miniature copy of the “Blue Boy” or a picture book containing all the flowers and structures of the Chinese garden. This is what the Huntington is to me: different people exploring the world, unveiling mysteries, discovering new things, and taking different cultures home with them.
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