First Opening

In 1919, the library was founded, designed and built in San Marino, California, and completed in 1920. Before the San Marino library was built, Huntington lived in a mansion in New York City, where he had his private library and collected books, art, plants and rare manuscripts, while the San Marino building was being constructed. Since the library, in New York, was Huntington's private library inside his mansion, it was not open to the public. Huntington read his books in the "library room". The library was meant for Huntington's own intellectual development. In addition, Huntington wanted to read the books in its original form. It appears that Huntington was interested in bookmaking, and the aesthetics of making a book, including book binding. In the beginning, Huntington's library had very limited access in New York, and in San Marino. Huntington's collection was often listed in the newspaper, and Huntington was known as a great collector, which inspired scholars to ask him if they could look at items in his collection. Huntington agreed to let scholars view his materials, and was interested in their research conclusions. Since more scholars were asking him to view the library, Huntington allowed his library collection to be visited on a registration basis. Only scholars could view collections while Huntington was present. Therefore, for Huntington the library was considered a private reading room library. For scholars, it was a research library. Only after Huntington's death did the library become open and available to the public. However, Huntington and his second wife, Arabella, only wanted the library to serve as a research institution for scholars. According to Peggy Park Bernal’s book The Huntington: Library, Art Collections, Botanical Gardens, the library officially opened to scholars in 1925 and about fifty scholars used the collections over the course of one year (p. 15). It appears that after the library was opened to the public more researchers were able to view the materials. The main purpose of the institution is to provide the advancement of learning.