Stories from the Library

Chaucer, Parkinson, Brontë, Butler, Franklin, Gutenberg: From the Gutenberg Bible to plans for the first Los Angeles skyscraper, from the everyday writings of Charlotte Brontë and Octavia E. Butler to an ink-blotted page of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography—this new exhibition series features both notable and unexpected collection materials in conversation with other works, many of which have never been exhibited before.

The exhibitions will take place in two rooms of the historic Huntington mansion—including the former private library of Henry E. and Arabella Huntington—and will rotate in pairs every six months through June 2028.

The series opens with two exhibitions that will run concurrently from June 21 through Dec. 1, 2025. In the Art Gallery’s Large Library, “The Tales Through Time” will focus on The Huntington’s exquisite manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and later iterations of the work, while upstairs in the Focus Gallery, “Los Angeles, Revisited” will explore the ways in which artists and visionaries have contended with the challenges and opportunities of a city that is constantly evolving. Future exhibition themes include education, the everyday lives of women writers, “damaged goods,” early science and medicine, international relations, and final moments of life.