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Huntington, The

Aug 24, 2026

San Marino, California, USA · Founded 1919 · Library, art museum, and botanical gardens · Research and educational institution

Founded 1919 · by Henry E. Huntington and Arabella Huntington · opened to public 1928

Legal name The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Type Collections-based research and educational institution · independent public trust

President Karen R. Lawrence

Library holdings 11 million+ items · manuscripts, rare books, photographs, maps, and ephemera · 11th–21st century

Art collection European art (15th–20th century) · American art (17th century–present)

Botanical gardens ~120 acres · 16 themed garden areas

Staff / Volunteers 478 employees · 1,200 volunteers

Endowment $728 million (as of June 30, 2023)

Address 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108

Websitehuntington.org

Overview

The Huntington is a collections-based research and educational institution in San Marino, California, that combines a major research library, an art museum, and approximately 120 acres of botanical gardens. Its library holds more than 11 million items — manuscripts, rare books, photographs, maps, and ephemera spanning the 11th through 21st centuries — making it one of the largest independently held research library collections in the United States. Its art museum holds European paintings from the 15th through 20th centuries and American art from the 17th century to the present. The gardens comprise 16 themed areas drawing on plant traditions from across the world. Together these collections are held in an independent public trust established by Henry E. Huntington and his wife Arabella, who signed over their San Marino estate and collections to that trust in 1919.

History

Henry Edwards Huntington (1850–1927) was a railroad, utilities, and real estate entrepreneur whose holdings shaped the development of Southern California in the early twentieth century. He was the nephew and eventual heir of Collis P. Huntington, one of the four principal investors behind the first transcontinental railroad. In 1903, Henry purchased a 500-acre working ranch called the San Marino Ranch for $225,000 with the intention of transforming it into a setting for three collecting passions: rare books and manuscripts, fine art, and botanical gardens. He assembled the library's core holdings over roughly two decades, purchasing entire collections wholesale — including the E. Dwight Church Library of Americana and the Wilberforce Eames collection of 12,000 early American imprints — at a scale and pace that has not been replicated.

Arabella Huntington, whom Henry married in 1913 (she was his second wife and the widow of Collis P. Huntington), was a significant art collector in her own right and drove the development of the European art collection, particularly 18th-century British portraiture and French decorative arts. She predeceased Henry in 1924; both are interred in a mausoleum on the property. In 1919 Henry and Arabella signed an indenture transferring the estate and its collections to a nonprofit educational trust. The institution opened to the public in 1928, a year after Henry's death.

The collections have grown substantially since the founding period. The library now holds more than 11 million items. The botanical gardens have expanded to roughly 120 acres encompassing 16 themed areas developed over more than a century. The Chinese Garden — Liu Fang Yuan, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance — opened in 2008 as the first phase of what became one of the largest classical Chinese gardens outside China. The institution is led by President Karen R. Lawrence and holds an endowment of $728 million as of June 2023.

The Library

The Huntington Library is one of the largest independently held research library collections in the United States, with more than 11 million items spanning the 11th through 21st centuries. Its core strengths are in British and American history and literature. Among its most documented holdings: a Gutenberg Bible (one of only a small number in the United States); the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1400–1410); early quartos and folios of Shakespeare's plays; Benjamin Franklin's draft autobiography; letters of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln; and a substantial photographic archive of the American West. The library supports a fellowship program that brings scholars from around the world to work with its collections. Access to the reading rooms is by application; the institution is open to qualified researchers independent of institutional affiliation.

The Art Museum

The Huntington Art Museum occupies several gallery buildings on the estate and holds European and American art assembled primarily by Henry and Arabella Huntington. The European collection is strongest in 18th-century British portraiture — Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy (c. 1770) and Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie (1794) are among the most visited works — and in French decorative arts. The American collection ranges from the 17th century to the present and includes works by Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, and John Singer Sargent, among others. The Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, opened 1984, were expanded and renovated in subsequent decades. The institution has a long-standing policy of not deaccessioning major works from the founding collection.

The Botanical Gardens

The gardens cover approximately 120 acres and comprise 16 themed areas, each developed around a distinct horticultural or geographic tradition. Highlights include:

Desert Garden

One of the world's largest collections of cacti and succulents in a natural landscape setting; 10 acres, 5,000+ species.

Japanese Garden

Traditional Japanese garden design with koi pond, moon bridge, bonsai collection, and teahouse. Established in the 1910s; one of the oldest in the western United States.

Chinese Garden (Liu Fang Yuan)

Garden of Flowing Fragrance — one of the largest classical Chinese gardens outside China. First phase opened 2008; developed in collaboration with landscape architects and craftspeople from Suzhou, China.

Rose Garden

Approximately 1,200 rose cultivars including heritage roses dating to the late 18th century; structured with allées and lawn.

Australian Garden

Plants of the Australian continent in a dry climate setting.

Jungle Garden

Tropical and subtropical species in a dense, naturalistic planting.

Herb Garden

Culinary, medicinal, and fragrant herbs organized by use and tradition.

Shakespeare Garden

Plants mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and poems.