California And The West

Join authors Bryan Mealer and Joshua Wheeler in a discussion about hardscrabble times, places, and people in Texas and New Mexico. Bryan Mealer's The Kings of Big Spring, has been called "the Texas version of Hillbilly Elegy," a saga of God, family, and oil across many generations of the author's own family. Joshua Wheeler's Acid West, is a collection of essays about Southern New Mexico, and has been called a "freaky, stylish, heart-cracking-open book." The evening's discussion is moderated by Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times. This event is sponsored by The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, and The Journal of Alta California. Reception and booksigning follows the program.

Among the first generation of landscape architects in Southern California, Ralph Cornell (1890–1972) is considered the most influential. His wide scope of projects included college campuses, city parks, and significant residential commissions. Noted architect Brian Tichenor discusses Cornell’s life and milieu while examining three of his highly significant landscape designs. The lecture is presented in collaboration with the California Garden and Landscape History Society. Recorded Nov. 12, 2017.

David Mas Masumoto, organic farmer and acclaimed author of Epitaph for a Peach and Harvest Son, is joined by his wife, Marcy Masumoto, for a lively talk about life on their Central California farm. Through stories that offer a personal perspective on growing organic crops, the Masumotos share their reflections on the vision required of artisan farmers in today’s food world. This talk is part of the Brody Lecture series at The Huntington. Recorded May 7, 2017.

Considered the worst civil engineering failure in the history of California and the state’s second-worst disaster in terms of lives lost, the collapse of the St. Francis Dam ended the storied career of William Mulholland, the man who earlier had masterminded construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. To contextualize Mulholland’s responsibility for the dam’s failure, historians Norris Hundley, Jr. and Donald C. Jackson relied extensively on items in The Huntington’s collections for their book titled "Heavy Ground: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster." In addition, roughly a third of the book’s illustrations are drawn from The Huntington’s collection.

Mae Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and professor of history at Columbia University, discusses the role of Chinese miners in the 19th-century gold rushes of California, Australia, and South Africa, and the rise of anti-Chinese politics in the West. This talk is part of the Cheng Foundation Lecture series at The Huntington. Recorded Mar. 15, 2017.

Landscape architect Kelly Comras, author of the biography Ruth Shellhorn, examines Shellhorn’s legacy in a lecture and short film screening.

Author and filmmaker Liz Goldwyn discusses her book "Sporting Guide", a series of interlinked stories that evoke a lost world on the margins of Los Angeles society in the 1890s.

Peter Blodgett,discusses his book, Motoring West: Automobile Pioneers, 1900–1909. Travel back in time to the the turn of the 20th century when Americans were hitting the road to explore the West by automobile. Blodgett is the H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western Historical Manuscripts at The Huntington.

Frank Guridy, associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and the Ray A. Billington Visiting Professor at Occidental College, discusses the rituals of labor and leisure that have played out at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum over the past century. This is part of the Haynes Lecture series.

David Igler, author of “The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush,” reflects on the causes of widespread violence during the age of exploration and maritime commerce. Igler is professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. His talk was the 2013–14 Billington Lecture.

Jared Farmer’s new book, “Trees in Paradise: A California History” (Norton, 2013), explores California’s first hundred years as a state through four trees: redwoods, eucalypts, citrus, and palms. During this time, horticulturists planted innumerable trees, importing ornamental and commercial species to create moneymaking orchards and tree-lined boulevards. In this lecture he describes the impact of this era on Southern California. Farmer is associate professor of history at Stony Brook University.

Peter Westwick discusses his new book, “The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing”, co-authored with Peter Neushul. This Dibner Lecture covers the high-tech aspects of the history of surfing, including how surfboards and wetsuits derive from military technology and how coastlines and even waves are increasingly engineered. In 2013–14 Westwick was the Searle Visiting Professor in the History of Science at Caltech and The Huntington. He is an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California.

William Deverell explores the history of the Los Angeles River and investigates the ways in which large-scale environmental projects such as cementing a river can inevitably reveal much about regional culture and identity. Deverell is professor of history at USC and the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Judith Freeman talks about her latest book “The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved”. Chandler drew on many real events and people to create his iconic Los Angeles mystery novels. Freeman discusses Chandler’s real-life sources, including a 1922 celebrity murder case that became the inspiration for much of Chandler’s work.

Philip Connors discusses his book Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout with William Deverell, professor of history at USC and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Matthew Garcia introduces the Huntington conference “Guest Workers: Western Origins, Global Future,” which looked at the role of guest workers in the United States—from the U.S.–Mexican Bracero program of 1942–64 through the H2 programs today. It considered how guest workers have shaped the world we live in, both domestically and globally.

Don Mitchell, Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University, speaks at the Huntington conference “Guest Workers: Western Origins, Global Future,” which looked at the role of guest workers in the United States—from the U.S.–Mexican Bracero program of 1942–64 through the H2 programs today. It considered how guest workers have shaped the world we live in, both domestically and globally.

Cindy Hahamovitch, history professor at the College of William & Mary, speaks at the Huntington conference “Guest Workers: Western Origins, Global Future,” which looked at the role of guest workers in the United States—from the U.S.–Mexican Bracero program of 1942–64 through the H2 programs today. It considered how guest workers have shaped the world we live in, both domestically and globally.

The controversy over city salaries in Bell, Calif., has generated a wave of proposed reforms. Raphael J. Sonenshein discusses some of the best ideas for improving local government.

"Ruins and Antiquities in 19th-Century America" (March 12–13). In a fledgling nation, ruins helped reassure Americans of their own antiquity. This scholarly conference explored the “necessity for ruins” and how it helped America cope with the modern pace of change. In this talk, Sam Truett discusses ruins, lost worlds, and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.