I’ll be honest I wasn’t expecting much when we decided to visit the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, but since I took the Friday before Memorial Day off I thought it was worth a try. Turns out the Huntington was absolutely amazing and hands down the best $25 I have spent since arriving in LA. Seriously.

I knew something was up when we arrived before they opened and the parking lot was already pretty full. I was surprised because it was a weekday, but thought maybe there was a special event of some kind. We took careful note of where we parked…the parking lot is BIG…and headed inside.

Since it was a little chilly, we took one of the staff’s advice and did the buildings first. I should say there were tons of staff throughout our visit and every person who worked there was very nice. The first building we went into showed the Huntington family who had donated the estate over 100 years ago in 1919.

Next was the library, and it blew me away. Not only did they have works from the 1390’s they had the Canterbury Tales. Beautiful manuscripts and gorgeously illustrated.

The most amazing thing they had though for me was an original Gutenberg Bible. The printing of the bible is commonly thought to be the most impactful achievement in human history because it gave the masses access to literature and changed religion forever. It gave me chills that I was seeing one of only 49 copies left in the world. I couldn’t stop looking at it.

But in a wonderful twist they also had a piece that was printed in 1085 by Buddhist Monks reminding us that European history is not all of human history.

Outside of the building was also very beautiful and as we moved towards the original house we admired the grounds. We saw several plants I had rarely (if ever) seen before and they were all clearly marked. The grounds also had several original statues and fountains which were beautiful as well.

We have visited many mansions in our travel, but the Huntington House was pretty special. First the inside was impeccably maintained and it was covered with their art collection. Sometimes when you visit a house and don’t care for the taste of the owner it can be a little disappointing but in this case I absolutely loved Arabella’s choices. Her painting and sculptures were all very unique and to the point where I started to notice the art that was less interesting to me was often donated by others. She was particularly fond of the artists Rodney, Reynolds, and Gainesburg and bought everything she could get from them.

Unlike some other mansions we have toured this one allowed you to get very close to the art and even though they had staff in every room they were again very nice and answered many questions for me.

Do you recognize the picture of the man above?? He is the gentleman who invented the first dictionary, but Lee was excited because he is also a famous meme. I don’t pay much attention to those but Lee was blown away to see the original in person. Hey whatever gets you interested in art 🙂

My favorite though was The Blue Boy. I remember this painting from childhood mainly because of the outfit and the look on his face and I had no idea it was in a private collection in California. I always assumed it would be in a museum in Europe and I was thrilled when I walked into the gallery and saw the painting. I was so shocked I asked a docent if it was the original painting and she smiled somewhat indulgently and said yes it was. I was blown away and spent a lot of time looking at the painting. It was hard to get a picture without glare because of the lighting, but here is the best I could get.

My other favorite was a picture of a volcano that was really mesmerizing. Again I didn’t really capture its essence but here it is. Super cool.

Along with the paintings and sculptures they also had several beautiful household items. My favorites were a spoon collection with the twelve apostles carved on the ends and some beautiful potpourri vases. I don’t know that I have ever seen vases like this before but what a beautiful way to have art that is also functional.

After we saw the inside of the house we walked outside and looked at the terrace which had gorgeous views of the gardens. I am going to stop here and pick up with the gardens and other museum in part 2 but I wanted to leave you with some nature before I come back.

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