Institute on California and the West

William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, explores the life of Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) against the backdrop of American history. This program is a Haynes Foundation Lecture.

Award-winning author Susan Straight is joined by novelist Lisa See for a conversation about Straight's powerful new memoir, In the Country of Women, which traces the lives of six generations of immigrant and multiracial women in her extended family.

Governor Jerry Brown and author Miriam Pawel discuss the development of California through the perspective of the influential Brown family with moderator William Deverell.

Authors Bryan Mealer and Joshua Wheeler discuss hardscrabble times, places, and people in Texas and New Mexico.

William Deverell, professor of history at USC, explores the regional dimensions of American entrepreneurialism, asking what special features or challenges found in the American West helped drive entrepreneurs and stimulate original thinking?

Benjamin Madley, associate professor of history at UCLA, discusses the near-annihilation and survival of California's indigenous population under United States rule.

Daniel Lewis, the Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science at The Huntington, discusses his new book about the birds of Hawaii. Belonging on an Island: Birds, Extinction, and Evolution in Hawai'i takes readers on a thousand-year journey as it explores the state's magnificent birds, touching on topics ranging from the concept of belonging to the work of pioneering bird conservationists.

Noted architect Brian Tichenor discusses the life of one of the first landscape architects in Southern California, Ralph Cornell's, and examines three of his highly significant landscape designs. The lecture is presented in collaboration with the California Garden and Landscape History Society.

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.

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.

The history of the aerospace industry in Southern California and its intersections with contemporary culture are the focus of this panel discussion, presented in conjunction with the exhibition of NASA’s Orbit Pavilion (on view at The Huntington from Oct. 29, 2016, to Feb. 27, 2017). Panelists are Peter Westwick, aerospace historian; William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; and Daniel Lewis, senior curator of the history of science and technology at The Huntington.

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.

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, eucalyptus, 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 an 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 a 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. A Haynes Foundation Lecture.

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.

Thomas G. Andrews discusses the history of coal in the American West. Andrews is author of “Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War,” published by Harvard University Press and the winner of the 2009 Bancroft Prize. He spoke at the conference “Ed Shannon’s West,” sponsored jointly by The Huntington and the Autry National Center.

Richard White spoke about Indians and the Railroads at the conference “Ed Shannon’s West,” sponsored jointly by The Huntington and the Autry National Center. White has since published the book “Railroaded: The Transcontinentals ad the Making of Modern America” (2011). He is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University.

Elliott West spoke about Indians and Yellowstone at the conference “Ed Shannon’s West,” sponsored jointly by The Huntington and the Autry National Center. He is the author, most recently, of “The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story” (2009). He is Alumni Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Arkansas.

Writers Charles Erskine Scott Wood and Sara Bard Field advocated, and practiced, free love as one element of their commitment to anarchistic politics. Sherry Smith, professor of history at Southern Methodist University and the Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellow for 2009-10, examines the interplay between what they preached and what they practiced in early 20th-century Oregon and California.

Conflict and conquest have long defined the history of the American West. But what of events shaped by concord? Stephen Aron explores episodes in which peoples put aside their differences and the lessons we might take from them.

Freeways have long embodied some of L.A.’s most powerful contradictions: a city moving ahead boldly into the future and a sprawling metropolis scarred by its dependence on the automobile. Such contradictions are not merely a matter of opinion but were built into the fabric of this complex public works enterprise. Matthew Roth, Ph.D., discusses the origins, engineering, and political back story of L.A.’s “concrete utopia.” He’s the historian for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Author and book collector Dennis Kruska gives a lecture based on his new book, "James Mason Hutchings of Yo-Semite: A Biography and Bibliography," published by the Book Club of California. Hutchings (1820–1902) was one of California’s most important 19th–century publishers and a tireless promoter of Yosemite, the Sierra, and the wonders of California.

In the spring of 1949, a three-year-old girl fell into an abandoned well shaft while playing near her home in San Marino. For more than 24 hours, local television stations KTTV and KTLA covered the unsuccessful rescue attempt, making it one of the first news events in the nation to be televised outside the station. At year’s end, The New York Times referred to the tragic death of Kathy Fiscus as the single most significant photographic event of 1949. Deverell explores the accident and aftermath, touching on the social and economic history of the region while also explaining how the tragedy revealed both the permanence and vulnerabilities of community. A Haynes Foundation Lecture.

During the 19th century, beach culture shifted from an emphasis on the therapeutic value of sea water to a growing interest in the recreational pleasures of a trip to the shore. Dr. Ritchie takes a closer look at the changing world of the beach, including concerns over appropriate fashions.