Watch, Read, Listen

Michael Hart spent 40 years as the vice president and general manager of the Sunny Slope Water Company in Pasadena. After retiring in 2008, he spent three years producing eight hand-colored maps and illustrations

Erik Altenbernd and Alex Young are just now completing their graduate coursework at UC Irvine and USC, respectively. They both study California and the American West, Altenbernd as a historian and Young as a literary scholar.

In the past month, you might have bought or received an orchid for Chinese New Year's or Valentine's Day. And maybe you are well aware of your bad history of killing every Phalaenopsis you buy from Trader Joe's, but you are determined this time to keep your precious plant alive.

Late last month, Harry S. Stout gave a public lecture titled "Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural as America's Sermon to the World." Before he began his talk, though, he turned the podium over to Lincoln biographer Ronald C. White Jr.

Behind every great book collection is a good love story. Someone with an obsession for antiquarian children's books or signed first editions might spend a lifetime amassing a collection, scouring garage sales, used bookstores, and the Internet for that rare find.

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and most likely you have no clue what to get for your significant other. Time is ticking and you want to make this year a little different from the ones before. It's time to break away from the clichés of roses and chocolates and go with an orchid

Today is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth. The English novelist wrote many of his greatest works in serial form, including Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Great Expectations. He also wrote a lot of letters. The Huntington has more than a thousand of them, including a group of 35 acquired by purchase through the Library Collectors' Council in 2010.

This is the first in a new series of blog posts about The Huntington's orchid collection.