Books and Blooms at the Huntington Library

Los Angeles, for me, is a constellation of remarkable places, separated by a spider web of terrible, soul-killing traffic. The Huntington Library is an oasis well worth the drive. Gardens? Check. Art? Check. Books? Check. I loved it.

We began with the gardens. There are 12 of them. My favorite (in, admittedly, dull, uneventful March) was the Garden of Flowing Fragrance, a recreation of scholar gardens in Suzhou and one of the largest Chinese-style gardens outside of China. Even off-season this space was–stimulating. The tea house, called the “Hall of the Jade Camellia,” is a delicious stop along the way (one of several dining options on the grounds).

But the centerpiece of The Huntington for me was the library, home to over 420,000 rare books and one of the world’s most expansive collections of manuscripts, photographs, prints, maps, and other materials on the history of science and technology and British and American art, literature, and history. Qualifying scholars can become Huntington readers. For the rest of us, the highlights of this treasury are displayed in the Library Exhibition Hall. These are breathtaking.

The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (ca. 1400–1405): Lavishly decorated, it is believed to include Chaucer’s portrait and was likely created [not long after Chaucer’s death] by a scribe who knew and worked with the author. It is named after Sir Thomas Egerton (1540-1617), Baron Ellesmere, an owner of the manuscript, whose family kept it in excellent shape until Huntington purchased it in 1917.

The first edition of John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667)

A letter signed by John Hancock ordering George Washington to take command of the Continental Army.

John James Audubon’s giant The Birds of America (1827–38): each 2- by 3-feet page presents American birds in lush life-sized splendor. I did not expect to be as moved by it as I was.

Charles Dickens had quite a signature

I could spend hours at the library: the Ellesmere Chaucer and the Gutenberg Bible; The First Folio and maps, objects, and volumes that conjure Shakespeare’s times; writings by Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein; the Declaration of Independence and letters by Lincoln and Susan B. Anthony; my favorite authors and drafts of their work–an exciting, exciting journey through time. Our day here flew by, and I can’t wait for the next visit.

Diana, hunting

Los Angeles: 

• An L.A. Sunset: Griffith Observatory 
• Holding Hands with Gregory Peck: Grauman’s Chinese Theatre
• Other posts from California

In the area: 

• Death Valley’s Wonders
• Where Spectaculars Retire: Las Vegas Neon Museum