Pasadena Touristic: The Huntington Library and Gardens (Part 2)

[nanila]

This post continues the homage to the Huntington Library and Gardens with a sample of the library displays. These are a mere fraction of what the library itself actually archives, although one needs a vetted research proposal in order to gain full access to its contents.

We begin with, er, light bulbs. Because if you were absurdly wealthy, why wouldn’t you amass a collection of historic lightbulbs.


“The Huntington’s collection of historical lamps consists of nearly 400 light bulbs, about half of which are on display here. The light bulbs range from the 1890s to the 1960s. They include examples of the variety of bases, filaments and globes in use before the development of current incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs.”


More of the light bulb collection.


Optical fibres hanging from the ceiling, like really expensive fairy lights.


Beautifully detailed natural history illustrations.


The History of Serpents by Edward Topsell. I question the good taste of showing a boa with a surprisingly calm-looking baby in its mouth on the first page, but whatevs.


Systema Saturnium by Christiaan Huygens. Because Cassini!


Edwin Hubble: Log book for the 100 inch telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, California, USA, 1925.


Audubon birds.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Completely missing LED's which we now have throughout!

[nanila]

Yep, the collection only runs through the 1960s, and white LEDs didn't become common until the 1990s, I think?

[gwendraith]

What an interesting place the Huntington Library is. The light bulb display is pretty impressive and I rather like the coloured ones.

[nanila]

It is jam-packed with interesting and varied Stuff! I have to admit, my brain was pretty baked after a full day of walking around outside in the scorching sun. I probably didn't get quite as much out of it as I might have otherwise. The light bulb display was eye-catching enough to penetrate my sun-baked daze, fortunately.

[wild_irises]

I was at the Huntington a couple of years ago for an afternoon, and I completely missed the light bulbs. They are seriously cool.

What I remember best is the original manuscripts display; I was with a friend who is a scholar of the English Revolution, and he got to see some things from his period that he never imagined seeing.

[nanila]

Perhaps something else was on display at the time? I got the feeling that they switch up the parts of the collection that are out pretty frequently.

There was a cabinet underneath the Audobon birds display that had a load of pull-out trays with other drawings, including some gorgeous ones by Louis Isidore Duperrey that I couldn't photograph very well because of their glass coverings.

[mysterysquid]

Oooh. :D

[nanila]

There was rather a lot of good stuff in there. I'm sure I missed some of it, due to being pretty tuckered out from the day walking around in the sun - and emotional fallout of the previous day...