The Huntington, situated in San Marino, California (next to Pasadena,) is a research and educational center set amidst 120 acres of beautiful gardens. Three art galleries and a library showcase magnificent collections of paintings, sculptures, rare books, manuscripts, and decorative arts. The botanical collection features over 14,000 different species of plants. The Huntington was founded in 1919 by railroad and real estate developer Henry Edwards Huntington and opened to the public in 1928. Highlights of the collection include the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (c.1410), a Gutenberg Bible (c.1455), Thomas Gainsborough's masterpiece The Blue Boy (c. 1770), Sir Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie (1794), Edward Hopper's The Long Leg, Rogier van der Weyden's Madonna and Child (15th century), the 12-acre desert garden, the Japanese garden, the camellia gardens, and much more. It is about an hour from my house and just became an annual member: http://www.huntington.org/