Exhibition

What Now: Collecting for the Library in the 21st Century, Part 2

Aug. 7–Nov. 1, 2021 | This two-part exhibition explores The Huntington's role in documenting the human experience through more than 100 items from the Library collections. 
John Humble, 2029 1st Street, Boyle Heights, Feb. 26, 1998, chromogenic print. Ruth Rowland Hall Memorial Book Endowment, 2016. © John Humble, 2019. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

John Humble, 2029 1st Street, Boyle Heights, Feb. 26, 1998, chromogenic print. Ruth Rowland Hall Memorial Book Endowment, 2016. © John Humble, 2019. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Loren Miller, “Mass Protest Saves the Scottsboro Boys,” March 16, 1933. First two pages of a three-page draft article written by Miller for the Daily Worker in response to William Patterson’s letter of February 14, 1933. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Loren Miller, “Mass Protest Saves the Scottsboro Boys,” March 16, 1933. First two pages of a three-page draft article written by Miller for the Daily Worker in response to William Patterson’s letter of February 14, 1933. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Flower Field in Los Angeles-Hollywood, California, United States, Operated by the Kuromi Family of Shimane Prefecture, March 1, 1928, Paris Photographic Studio. Panoramic photo of the Kuromi family in a flower field off of Los Feliz Boulevard.

Flower Field in Los Angeles-Hollywood, California, United States, Operated by the Kuromi Family of Shimane Prefecture, March 1, 1928, Paris Photographic Studio. Panoramic photo of the Kuromi family in a flower field off of Los Feliz Boulevard. A.H. (Andrew Harue) and Kiyo Kuromi moved to the United States in the early 1900s. The Kuromis eventually settled in Hollywood, where they joined another family member growing flowers on Los Feliz Boulevard. The couple had three children: Aiko (1919–2011), Isamu (1922–1996), and Hitoshi (1925–1970). Arthur Ito papers. Gift of James A. Ito and Paul N. Cornan, Nov. 2016. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Susan Hertel (1930–1993) for Millard Sheets Designs, Inc., The Child’s Discovery of Nature, study for mural at Community Memorial Hospital, Ventura, California, 1974, gouache on board. Dennis O’Connor Collection. Purchase, Library Collectors’ Council, 2011. © Millard Sheets Estate, 2019.

Susan Hertel (1930–1993) for Millard Sheets Designs, Inc., The Child’s Discovery of Nature, study for mural at Community Memorial Hospital, Ventura, California, 1974, gouache on board. Dennis O’Connor Collection. Purchase, Library Collectors’ Council, 2011. © Millard Sheets Estate, 2019.

Mathew Brady, Pall Bearers of President Lincoln, April 1865. Albumen print on board with pencil annotations. 10 x 12 in. Purchase, Ruth Rowland Hall Memorial Book Endowment, 2017. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino.

Mathew Brady, Pall Bearers of President Lincoln, April 1865. The 12 men photographed (all first sergeants) were members of General Montgomery C. Meigs’s Quartermaster General’s Volunteer’s division who were detached to carry Abraham Lincoln’s coffin from the Washington, D.C. Capitol rotunda to the hearse. Seated (left to right): M.V. Taylor, D. Sullivan, R. Hamilton, B[eoni] Wood, E.F. Coe, H[enry] M. Crocker. Standing (left to right): S[amuel] J. Marks, M[iles] Grennon, H.C. Wheeler, L.V. Burger, D.M. Wheeler, H.E. Mathews. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Two pages from Susan B. Anthony account book detailing expenses during the 1859 New York State woman’s rights campaign, April 17, 1858–July 27, 1860. In the spring of 1859, Anthony was engaged in preparation for the 9th Woman’s Rights Convention in New York City. The convention opened on May 12, 1859, at the Mozart Hall. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Two pages from Susan B. Anthony account book detailing expenses during the 1859 New York State woman’s rights campaign, April 17, 1858–July 27, 1860. In the spring of 1859, Anthony was engaged in preparation for the 9th Woman’s Rights Convention in New York City. The convention opened on May 12, 1859, at the Mozart Hall. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

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John Humble, 2029 1st Street, Boyle Heights, Feb. 26, 1998, chromogenic print. Ruth Rowland Hall Memorial Book Endowment, 2016. © John Humble, 2019. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Loren Miller, “Mass Protest Saves the Scottsboro Boys,” March 16, 1933. First two pages of a three-page draft article written by Miller for the Daily Worker in response to William Patterson’s letter of February 14, 1933. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Flower Field in Los Angeles-Hollywood, California, United States, Operated by the Kuromi Family of Shimane Prefecture, March 1, 1928, Paris Photographic Studio. Panoramic photo of the Kuromi family in a flower field off of Los Feliz Boulevard.
Susan Hertel (1930–1993) for Millard Sheets Designs, Inc., The Child’s Discovery of Nature, study for mural at Community Memorial Hospital, Ventura, California, 1974, gouache on board. Dennis O’Connor Collection. Purchase, Library Collectors’ Council, 2011. © Millard Sheets Estate, 2019.
Mathew Brady, Pall Bearers of President Lincoln, April 1865. Albumen print on board with pencil annotations. 10 x 12 in. Purchase, Ruth Rowland Hall Memorial Book Endowment, 2017. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino.
Two pages from Susan B. Anthony account book detailing expenses during the 1859 New York State woman’s rights campaign, April 17, 1858–July 27, 1860. In the spring of 1859, Anthony was engaged in preparation for the 9th Woman’s Rights Convention in New York City. The convention opened on May 12, 1859, at the Mozart Hall. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Gallery Guide (pdf)

“What Now: Collecting for the Library in the 21st Century” is a two-part exhibition that illuminates The Huntington’s ongoing role in documenting the human experience in support of research and education. Part of The Huntington’s 2019–20 Centennial Celebration, the exhibition’s first installment opened in Fall 2019; the second part, which was to open in Spring 2020, opens Aug. 7 and runs until Nov. 1, 2021. The words “what now” have never been more relevant, and the eclectic assemblage of some 50 items acquired in the 21st century resonates with issues and themes of the past year, including racial justice, wellness, immigration, and the environment. Materials range from a typescript essay by Loren Miller on the Scottsboro Nine to a landscape study for a mural at the Ventura Community Hospital; and from Octavia Butler’s notes on a dusty, barren stretch seen from a Greyhound bus to a map of Hawaii for Japanese immigrants. Other intriguing items on view include a rare Mathew Brady photograph of Lincoln’s pall bearers; a drawing of the brain of “the most eccentric American,” George F. Train; and an early draft of writer Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall. Together the objects demonstrate, in unexpected ways, the rich texture and diversity of the Library today.

Exhibition Videos

Forgotten Pallbearers of Abraham Lincoln

Olga Tsapina, curator of American historical manuscripts at The Huntington, discusses the importance of a little-known photograph from renowned Civil War photographer Mathew Brady's studio that reveals the forgotten pallbearers of Abraham Lincoln.

Certificate of Identity

From 1909 to 1928, the U.S. government required all Chinese people with legal status in the country to obtain certificates of identity. Li Wei Yang, curator of Pacific Rim Collections, explains how this document can help us understand our current immigration enforcement debates.

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