Verso

While everyone knows that The Huntington relies on our assortment of volunteers and docents to give tours, answer questions, and be the face of The Huntington, there are some volunteers who choose to remain in the background.

I feel as if I met Gore Vidal years before I actually did. In 2006 I saw him dining at Musso and Frank's on Hollywood Blvd. with several young and attractive men. I was star struck. I walked over and hovered nearby.

Welcome to Verso, the newly named and redesigned blog of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Everyone who visited The Huntington noticed him. Standing eight feet high, on a two-foot pedestal, the figure of the god of the sea, Neptune, loomed large over all who passed in front of the Library building.

Who knew The Huntington was so rich in works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods? If you're in the mood for some splendor, along with a stunning reminder that The Huntington's art collections go beyond huge 18th-century British portraits

Few authors can boast hitting Amazon.com and the Amazon River in the same month, but Neil Safier is one of them. His 2008 book, Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America, just came out in paperback

It's not often that you go to an academic conference and a concert breaks out, but that's what happened in April when scholars, musicians, and writers gathered at USC for "This Great and Crowded City: Woody Guthrie's Los Angeles."

Videre, Latin for to see, is a video series that plays with the idea of re-seeing. The short works featured here are explorations of sights, sounds, and sensing at The Huntington.