California Trip – Part III: The Museums
Time for some cultcha! Sarah and I visited two interesting museums on this trip: The Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, and the Getty Villa in Malibu. (We also saw the Eastman (i.e. Kodak) house in Rochester – but that’ll have to be yet another story).
Basically, if you become a transportation/oil magnate you have to set up a shrine to yourself, and Sarah and I really enjoyed our stroll through these characters’ homes.
First, the Huntington Library and Gardens
Henry Huntington was all about trains and transportation systems in the L.A. area. (Sad that it’s his house that has survived the years – California could have used some of those trolleys later on.) He was quite a collector – Gutenberg Bible, manuscripts from all kinds of books, sculpture, art – you name it. He kept a lot of it in his home in New York until he ran out of space and converted a working farm into a many-acred compound. We spent more time outside than inside and especially liked the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden. Here’s a little slide show of some favorite spots.
(Bonus factoid: Henry Huntington married his aunt.)
Next up, the Getty Villa
J. Paul Getty was a nut about collecting and was a softy for antiquities. Ancient Roman and Greek things of all kinds. His collection also outgrew his house, so while he was overseas, he had his home expanded and converted into a exclusive public museum. In fact, many would-be-museum goers never got to see it either because the house was small and open only a few days a week. In 1997 his foundation closed the house and rebuilt it to represent an ancient villa. Anyway, it’s open now and, like the Getty Center, is perfectly clean, perfectly managed and impressive from just about any perspective. Here are the pics:
(Bonus thought: If you’re a daredevil gas zillionaire, you can store irreplaceable ancient artifacts on a California fault zone, surrounded by dry brush, in a valley suitable for flooding.)