How Do You Tour The Huntington Library?
Henry Edwards Huntington made a fortune with railroads and transportation, as well as other business interests. Then he inherited much of the estate of his uncle, railroad tycoon Collis P. Huntington, and consolidated his fortunes still further by marrying Collis’s widow, Arabella. After this, he started collecting books and art in a big way. His wife never understood why he walked around their mansion turning off electric lights and yet could spend thousands of dollars on a single book. He retorted that savings those pennies allowed him to buy the books. Enter the Huntington mansion, designed in a Georgian style and built of concrete. After the deaths of the Huntingtons, the structure was converted into an art gallery to showcase British and French paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and objets d’art. Such celebrated artists as Blake, Romney and Reynolds are represented. Gainsborough’s “Jonathan Buttall: The Blue Boy” and Lawrence’s “Sarah Barrett Moulton: Pinkie” han
