FALL/WINTER 2017 FLORIFORM WELCOME TO THE RANCH IN THE WOODS WITH A CANOE The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens SENIOR STAFF OF THE HUNTINGTON STEVE HINDLE Interim President and FROM THE EDITOR W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research LARRY J. BURIK SOUL SEARCHING, HUNTINGTON STYLE Vice President of Facilities JAMES P. FOLSOM Marge and Sherm Telleen/Marion and Earle Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens here’s a spiritual quality to The Huntington that we hear about CATHERINE HESS Interim Director of the Art Collections and regularly, and from people from all walks of life: this is a place Chief Curator of European Art where they come to renew and replenish; a restorative place for MITCHELL MORRIS quiet reflection and contemplation. And while we don’t typically Chief Information Officer Tseek out stories for the magazine to fit a theme, I was struck by the degree COREEN A. RODGERS to which this issue seems to speak in particular to the intersection of the Anne and Jim Rothenberg Vice President for Financial Affairs mind and the spirit—through art, nature, and intellectual pursuit. RANDY SHULMAN Vice President for Advancement Take, for example, our cover story, in which James Glisson, the Bradford SUSAN TURNER-LOWE and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art, imaginatively Vice President for Communications and Marketing engages with the work of three modern artists—Henrietta Shore (1880–1963), DAVID S. ZEIDBERG Agnes Pelton (1881–1961), and Helen Lundeberg (1908–1999)—who conjured Avery Director of the Library up a multiplicity of meanings in their luminous depictions of flowers (see pg. 16). The minds and spirits of these three artists live on in the floral forms their MAGAZINE STAFF art embodies. EDITOR Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Usha Lee McFarling leads us Kevin Durkin deep into the earthly paradise of the Ranch, The Huntington’s experimental DESIGNER demonstration garden. Part classroom and part research lab, the Ranch draws Lori Ann Achzet inspiration from The Huntington’s—and the region’s—agricultural heritage, while making connections with gardeners, native plant enthusiasts, landscape Huntington Frontiers is published semiannually by the professionals, students, educators, and researchers throughout Southern Office of Communications and Marketing. It strives to connect readers with the rich intellectual life of The Huntington, California (see pg. 10). capturing in news and features the work of researchers, Racha Kirakosian, assistant professor of German and the Study of Religion educators, curators, and others across a range of disciplines. at Harvard University, and a short-term fellow at The Huntington in 2017, explores the materiality of a devotional work as she contemplates a recess INQUIRIES AND COMMENTS: carved into the wooden cover of a 15th-century Dutch manuscript and posits Kevin Durkin, Editor, Huntington Frontiers 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108 a surprising purpose it may once have served (see pg. 8). [email protected] In his book Heading Out: A History of American Camping, Terence Young—professor emeritus of geography at California State Polytechnic For advertising inquiries, please call University, Pomona—takes readers on a pilgrimage into nature to explore Maggie Malone, 312-593-3355 the history of camping in the United States. In an excerpt from the book, he Unless otherwise acknowledged, photography is provided by scrutinizes U.S. historian Frederick Jackson Turner, best known for his The Huntington’s Department of Imaging Services. “Frontier Thesis,” as he encountered the wilderness with family and friends on a 1908 canoe-camping trip (see pg. 22). © 2017 The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Take a whirl though our Social Scene (see pg. 6), a roundup of images and Gardens. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the news items from The Huntington’s social media, and then slice up and weave contents, in whole or in part, without permission of the publisher, is prohibited. together our Back Page, which features The Blue Boy in a format you’ve never seen before (see pg. 27). At The Huntington, we are devoted to the notion that our humanity is best expressed through a balance of the things of this world and the promptings of the soul. In the pages ahead, may you catch a glimpse of enlightenment. Kevin Durkin is editor of Huntington Frontiers. On the cover: Detail of Agnes Pelton’s Passion Flower, ca. 1945, oil on canvas. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation Acquisition Fund for American Art. 1151 Oxford Road | San Marino, California 91108 | huntington.org volume 13, issue 1 Contents FALL/WINTER 2017 10 FEATURES 16 WELCOME TO THE RANCH 10 The Huntington’s experimental demonstration garden educates and enchants By Usha Lee McFarling FLORIFORM 16 Don’t expect a garden variety flower from a modernist painter By James Glisson DEPARTMENTS SOCIAL SCENE 6 SCHOLAR’S INSIGHT 8 A Riveting Hypothesis By Racha Kirakosian LESSONS LEARNED 22 In the Woods with a Canoe By Terence Young IN PRINT 26 Recommended Reading BACK PAGE 27 Now You See Him, Now You Don’t By Kate Lain Top: Fruits and vegetables harvested from the Ranch, The Huntington’s experimental demonstration garden. Photograph by Kate Lain. Center: Detail of Henrietta Shore’s Clivia, ca. 1930, oil and pencil on canvas laid down on board. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation Acquisition Fund for American Art. © Estate of Henrietta Shore. Bottom: In 1908, historian Frederick Jackson Turner and his family joined the family of Charles Van Hise, president of the University of Wisconsin, on a canoe camping trip through southern Ontario Province 22 in Canada. This detail is from a photograph taken on the Atikokan River. Unknown photographer. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. 4 huntington.org SOCIALA PEEK AT WHAT WE’RE UP TO ONLINE SCENE Seven artists have spent the better part of the year immersing themselves in The Huntington’s library, art, and botanical collections as they create new artworks as part of /five, The Huntington’s five-year contemporary arts initiative centered on creative collaborations. The artists were selected by the Los Angeles–based Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW), The Huntington’s 2017 partner in the initiative. Over the course of the year, The Huntington has been following the artists’ progress and sharing updates with our digital audiences via the /five website at huntington.org/five. 6 huntington.org As part of a YWCA Girls’ Empowerment Camp, nearly 100 middle schoolers recently went behind the scenes in the Library for an “up-close-and-personal” experience with curators, conservators, and materials from the collections. SOCIAL SCENE 1huntingtonblogs.org/2017/09/making-history-personal/ Art intern Julia Cury shares some of the hidden elements tucked inside a few pieces of furniture in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. http://huntingtonblogs.org/2017/10/ inside-secrets/ 3 ON VERSO, THE BLOG… THE ON VERSO, Read about these stories and more at huntingtonblogs.org at more stories and these about Read 2 The Lily Ponds are looking better than ever after undergoing a major cleaning. “A fairy volume nestled in the palm of your hand”—a re- huntingtonblogs.org/2017/07/ search fellow reflects on miniature books at The Huntington. flourishing-lily-ponds/ huntingtonblogs.org/2017/08/enchanting-miniature-books/ 4 Finger smudges, worn pages, notes written in the margins: the signs of use in a medieval manuscript are a thing of special beauty to a scholar. http://huntingtonblogs. org/2017/10/a-using-book/ 5 ON SOUNDCLOUD AND ITUNES… Conference: Octavia E. Butler Studies: “I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There” Convergence of an Expanding Field These lectures are only a tiny Hilary Mantel fraction of The Huntington’s audio available for free on The Art of Farming: SoundCloud and iTunes. Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation How a Farmer Sees the Future Damian Duffy and John Jennings David Mas Masumoto and Marcy Masumoto Potosí, Silver, and the Coming Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star: Kate Sessions: of the Modern World Now I See You as You Are A Legacy of Botanical Bounty John Demos Jennifer van Saders Nancy Carol Carter We’re also on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more! Links at huntington.org huntington.org 7 scholar’s insight A Riveting Hypothesis THE RECESS IN A BOOK’S COVER MAY HAVE CONTAINED MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE By Racha Kirakosian ne of the most pleasurable experiences I’m used to poring over book bindings, illumi- one can have as a medievalist is coming nations and miniatures, and “bookish” things. But across an artifact that triggers a chain HM 1048 stood out with a particular feature: a Above: Senior book conservator of discoveries and unexpected connec- pear-shaped recess on the inside of the front wooden Andrea Knowlton (left) and Racha Otions. That happened to me when I was researching cover. This posed a conundrum. What was its use? Kirakosian, assistant professor of German and the Study of a codex from The Huntington’s collections, a 15th- Why was it there? Did it hold a devotional object, Religion at Harvard University, look at a pear-shaped recess century Dutch manuscript of devotional texts which would have been in keeping with the book’s inside the front cover of a 15th- known as Huntington Manuscript 1048, or simply religious and mystical contents? This would be century Dutch codex known as Huntington Manuscript 1048. HM 1048. Produced in the northeastern part of the palpable evidence for the link between devotion and Photograph by Kate Lain. Below: Netherlands around 1439, it contains meditations, corporeality, between mysticism and materiality.