Just another day at the Huntington Library

Today was the day that we could redeem our reservation to visit the grand Huntington Library in San Marino, CA, near Pasadena. We had made the reservation over a month in advance, and after calling early in the morning and waiting on hold for close to 15 minutes, we barely made it for a free pass.

Henry Huntington, the nephew of Collis Huntington, one of the Big Four that built the Transcontinental Railway, was a railroad magnate and the estate and gardens he built around the turn of the 20th century is now a museum, library and gardens open to the public on certain days. It was truly magnificent, and we should have taken more photos, but Edie and I were having too much fun enjoying our "Last Year at Marienbad" moments. If you don't understand the reference, I can't explain it here.





The books in the permanent collection were fantastic, I mean, he was an ultimate first edition collector. He had original printings of Shakespeare from the 17th century, original printings of Milton, he had original letters of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, a Guttenberg Bible, etc. The photos we tried to take were bad because they didn't allow flashes and the room was fairly dark, in order to preserve the texts, obviously. And some of the materials were straight facsimiles, which is good.



This is an original book with a drawing depicting Captain John Smith being captured by the Powhatan Confederacy of Indians, how he was saved by Pocahantas, the chief's daughter, and then subsequently took the chief hostage himself. Almost all of these books were printed on sheepskin.



Here Edie used her flash accidentally and the guy came over and politely reprimanded us. It's a first printing of the Comedies and Tragedies of Shakespeare.



OK, back to the fun shots in the gardens. Here I am in the Shakespeare Garden taking a break in an interesting chair.



Edie trying not to wilt in the heat. It was REALLY hot.