Henry E. and Arabella Huntington were among early twentieth century America’s wealthiest couples. Flush with railroad money, along with Stanford, Crocker, and Hopkins, the Huntingtons — like many of their generation and status — initially collected European art and aspired to live like European aristocrats. Eventually Henry also amassed treasures of American history that range from rare copies of the Declaration of Independence to the earliest books printed in British North America.

The Huntingtons’ story also centers around the incomparable Arabella Duval Huntington. Of an unknown age and mysterious origins, she married two Huntingtons: first Collis then Henry. She used her incredible eye for art and great fortune to become one of the most remarkable collectors in turn-of-the-century America. She is the inspiration for The Gilded Age television series character Mrs. Chamberlain, the spectacularly rich woman with a mysterious background struggling to break into New York high society. Collis built Arabella one of Fifth Avenue's largest mansions, although she preferred her sprawling chateaux near Paris.

In 1913 Arabella married Henry E. Huntington and, for part of the year, the couple lived at their San Marino estate near Pasadena where they amassed acclaimed library, art, and botanical collections. Of special interest were their British grand manner portraits, the first such Old Masters collection in Los Angeles. They later added renowned European paintings and decorative arts to their holdings.

In the summer of 1938, Dorothy Wright Liebes embarked on a six-week, nine-country journey across Europe in preparation for her role as Director of the Decorative Arts Pavilion at the Golden Gate International Exposition the following year. Her mission was to gather items that illustrated her conviction that “the art spirit of any age may well be measured by the vitality in the design of everyday things.” She traversed the United States and Europe, collecting textiles, books, metalworks, sculpture, jewelry, furniture, and more, with a single unifying characteristic: modernism. The design of the pavilions, the exhibit catalog, the live demonstrations of artists in action, and the emphasis on indoor/outdoor living were Liebes’s vision realized. She was lauded by critics including Alfred Auerbach, who wrote, “The entire presentation reveals a discerning, keen understanding of who’s who and what’s what in modern art at the moment.”

Liebes biographer Liz Schott is a retired educator who lives in Sebastopol, California. Her proposal for Useful and Beautiful: The Life of Dorothy Wright Liebes won the Biographers International Organization’s Hazel Rowley Prize, which honors first-time biographers, in June, 2025.