Founders' Day Lectures

Civil War scholar and former Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust explores the ways The Huntington's collections have served as a critical resource for our understanding of the Civil War for this 2020 Founders' Day Lecture. Although the collection started with Henry Huntington, it has expanded since the library's founding, bringing new insights about the war's causes, motivations, and consequences.

Karen Lawrence, president of The Huntington and a James Joyce scholar, delivers the annual Founder's Day Lecture on how Joyce wrote "Ulysses" by stealing from everybody else.

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, art historian and journalist, reveals the scholarship and science behind Project Blue Boy, The Huntington's two-year effort to conserve one of Western art's greatest masterpieces for the 2018 Founder's Day lecture.

David Zeidberg, who retires in June after 21 years as director of the Library, looks back on some of the many highlights of his career for the 2017 Founder's Day lecture.

Kevin Salatino, the Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections, looks at the origins of art at The Huntington and predicts its future course, asking "Where do we come from, what are we, where are we going?" This talk was the 2016 Founder’s Day Lecture at The Huntington.

President Steven S. Koblik, who retired in June 2014 after 14 years at the helm of The Huntington, reflects on the momentous changes at the institution and challenges of the job in an imaginary conversation with a special guest.

Steve Hindle, W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research at The Huntington, explores the similarities and differences between the English and American civil wars in his 2014 Founder’s Day lecture.

David Zeidberg, Avery Director of the Library, gives an overview of The Huntington’s research holdings and discusses current trends in public and academic libraries for the 2013 Founder's Day lecture. In the general move to digital resources, The Huntington is now distinguished as a “library of last resort,” where researchers have access to rare original materials as well as to digital resources.

Shelley M. Bennett, senior research associate and former curator of British and European art at The Huntington, discusses the family history of collecting and philanthropy of Collis, Arabella, Archer, and Henry Huntington for the 2012 Founder's Day lecture.

The director of research provides an inside look at a side of The Huntington that the general public never sees: the research activity that's at the heart of the institution.