Half Day at Huntington Library (Mayl 2010)

From Huntington Library_052010

We visited two exhibitions:

1. A Clash of Empires: The Seven Years’ War and British America Some 20 years before the shot “heard ‘round the world” initiated the War of Independence, other shots, fired in what is now southwestern Pennsylvania, literally set the world on fire. On May 28, 1754, a detachment of Virginia militia commanded by a young George Washington ambushed a party of French soldiers in the territory claimed by both France and England. Less than two months later, French reinforcements surrounded the stockade hastily built by Washington’s men and forced their surrender. This skirmish triggered a chain of events that erupted in a conflict known as the French and Indian War or the Seven Years’ War and drew into its vortex all the European powers and engulfed the entire globe. “A Clash of Empires” examines the causes, course, and consequences of the conflict through the eyes of its many participants, publicly displaying for the first time materials from the Huntington Library’s vast collections documenting this turning point in modern history.

2. Child's Play? Children's Book Illustration of 19th-Century Britain In the 19th century—with the work of Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, and others—children’s fairy tales and nursery rhymes began to be widely published, documenting what was originally a rich oral tradition across western cultures. In Britain, such publications were enlivened by the work of some of the most talented artists and illustrators of the period, including Walter Crane (1845–1915), Arthur Rackham (1867–1939), and Kate Greenaway (1846–1901). Drawing on the collections of The Huntington’s art and literary collections, “Child’s Play?” includes a selection of rare drawings as well as the books themselves. Although beguiling, some of the stories and their illustrations represent the often complicated layering of the joys and fears related to childhood and child rearing.