Woody Guthrie's guitar, a Gettysburg photo: 5 must-sees at the Huntington's new America 250 exhibit
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A cross section of a 250-year-old Pasadena oak tree that was uprooted in a 1993 windstorm is among the first things visitors will see upon entering the Huntington’s new exhibit, “This Land Is…” Jagged cracks in the trunk, which was once rooted in the Huntington’s lawn, are feebly held together by wooden joints.It’s a fitting emblem of what’s to come in a long-planned show curated to coincide with the country’s upcoming semiquincentennial, and crafted to pose land itself as central to the country’s complex past.
After taking in the exhibit, attendees can draw their own conclusions about the land’s role as a “geographical and metaphorical space of promise, struggle, and belonging.” On a recent late afternoon, the Pasadena sun drilled down on the facade of the Huntington’s MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, where the show’s organizers waited beside four chiseled columns with their hands tucked behind their backs, swaying in anticipation.“It’s the first time anyone is seeing it,” said Linde B.Lehtinen, the museum’s senior curator of photography.Joining her are Josh Garrett-Davis, curator of Western American history, and Armando Pulido, assistant curator for special projects.
All three smile with excitement.For the better part of the last two and a half years, Lehtinen and Garrett-Davis have spearheaded the curation of “This Land Is…,” which opens Sunday and runs through early next year.For them the fallen oak tree represents hope amid disturbance: Another once-towering elder on the museum’s North Vista was uprooted during a windstorm in 2025 — one of its acorns has since sprouted and now stands more than 6-feet tall.Still, it only brushes the surface of an exhibition that seamlessly draws upon a plethora of works crafted across U.S.
history.Want to plan a visit? Here are five things you shouldn’t miss seeing.
In 1940, Woody Guthrie sat...