Huntington Library - History

History

Henry E. Huntington was a nephew and heir of Collis P. Huntington, one of the Big Four railroad tycoons of 19th-century California. After also working with his uncle's railroad, the younger Huntington began collecting art and rare books in 1910 at the age of 60. He divorced his first wife, Mary Alice Prentice in 1906, married his uncle's widow Arabella in 1913, and relocated from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He purchased more than 500 acres from the Farmers and Merchants Bank and developed San Marino. He did not visit Europe until he was 63 and usually purchased only one or two paintings a year. By using experts to guide him and benefiting from a post-World War I European market that was "ready to sell almost anything", however, Huntington amassed "far and away the greatest group of 18th-century British portraits ever assembled by any one man" before his death in 1927. In accordance with Huntington's will, the collection, worth $50 million, opened to the public in 1928.