♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We are in the Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster County.

This magnificent statue is "The Boy of the Waxhaws."

This is a statue of the young Andrew Jackson.

Born here in the Waxhaws, in maturity he became the seventh President of the United States.

This magnificent work is by Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Through such sensitive contributions as this, she has meant a great deal to the people of South Carolina.

When I look at this statue, it's that of a youngster looking back on his childhood, which ended with the American Revolution when he was 12 years old.

In thinking about the sensitivity and the artistry of the woman who created this magnificent piece, I find my feelings are like those of many others because of her tremendous contributions to art and her caring for and association with the people of South Carolina.

That begins at a home called "Atalaya."

The Atlantic Ocean is orchestrating the music.

The wind, slight though it be today, is the conductor of the sound of the shorebirds high in the sky, wheeling.

This is a beautiful place, a place of nature and peace.

Welcome to Huntington Beach State Park and "Atalaya."

The very name has its own music.

It's a word from the Spanish, meaning watchtower.

We are standing by the watchtower in the inner court of the beautiful home.

How did all of it begin?

Who were the people who built this beautiful home, which has not been a residence for 25 years?

It's very interesting... Anna Hyatt was the daughter of a famous biologist and paleontologist.

She was born in 1887 in Massachusetts.

Early in her life, she became fascinated by animals, horses particularly.

As a small child, she would often be in the stables watching the horses, checking their skeleton, the movement of their muscles, and the various moods they would have.

Her sister Harriet was also a sculptor.

She was older, and frequently Anna would help Harriet create one of her small clay sculptures, until finally this was the thing Anna wanted to do.

It was born into her imagination, translated through her hands into works of beauty, which are ours to admire today.

As a young girl, she studied in New York City-- she always hated the city-- spent a little while in France, and created a beautiful statue of Joan of Arc, which has been duplicated and admired in Europe more than in the United States.

Indeed, many of her works have been displayed more in France and Spain than in her own country.

She worked very hard through the years and became quite famous as our first American woman sculptor.

Due to this dreadfully hard schedule she gave herself, she developed a type of cough and later tuberculosis.

Along with the large, monumental statues that she was working on and the smaller pieces, she had time to design medals and doorways in iron, a magnificent talent.

It was during her work on designing a medal for the Hispanic Society of New York City that she met her husband, Archer Milton Huntington.

Later, after a short courtship, they were married on their mutual birthday, March 10.

She was 47 years old, and Mr. Huntington was 53.

Mr. Huntington had led a fascinating life.

He was a multimillionaire.

His father had worked very hard and had gained his millions through building railroads and also the shipyards at Newport News.

Mr. Huntington was able throughout his life to enjoy using his money to create things of beauty and to purchase objects of beauty which he later gave to the American people.

Throughout his lifetime, it was said he founded seven museums.

When Anna developed tuberculosis, they spent several years trying to find a climate that would be more healthful for her.

They tried Asheville, various places in New York State, and spent quite a bit of time in Switzerland.

Mr. and Mrs. Huntington read an advertisement which offered property for sale in Georgetown County.

This property encompassed 9,000 acres and was composed of four of the original rice plantations, pre-Revolutionary War grants from King George II.

The rice plantations had been extremely profitable until after 1865.

Mr. and Mrs. Huntington decided to come and see the property.

They were immediately enchanted by the area which we now know as Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens.

They found that the climate was very desirable, particularly in the spring and fall and sometimes during the summer.

The winters were a little strong for them, so they never spent winter here.

On the strip of land called Magnolia Beach, they found a hunting lodge which had belonged to the former owners.

There was no large mansion for them to inhabit because the Brookgreen mansion had burned in 1903.

They took up residence in the hunting lodge, and Mr. Huntington began to follow his great love, architecture.

He decided to build a house according to his own designs.

He called in local labor in the early '30s.

He wouldn't import labor because people needed jobs.

All materials had to be brought in by barge from Georgetown.

As this is a home made of brick, that in itself was a tremendous undertaking.

By giving instructions daily to the contractor, Mr. Huntington designed his own home.

In building this lovely home, he followed the style of Moorish architecture of the Spanish Mediterranean.

We have here a home on the south side with living quarters for the family, and on the north side, quarters for the servants.

Within the garden we find palms not native to the area, but brought here to give a feeling of not only Southern United States, but also of Spain.

Within the rooms, walls are frequently very rough.

The brick has been put together so that the mortar was not removed to smooth it.

It's left sticking out.

That has been called the "Huntington squeeze."

The floors are placed with the bricks diagonally in a type of Spanish effect.

Every room has its own fireplace.

Central heating was not thought of.

They fortunately were able to use coal rather than having all that wood brought into the house.

You'll find ramps in the home because the hods of coal had to be pulled up so they could be deposited for use within the individual rooms.

The rooms in "Atalaya" are not large by modern standards.

The largest was the studio that was built for Anna.

This was a working home.

They came here to rest, to enjoy the climate, but also to work.

Among the 30 rooms in "Atalaya," there is no guest room.

As we say, "You may come to dinner, but please go home afterwards!"

Also, the exterior windows are most interesting, opening into the courtyard.

These are encased in grillwork very reminiscent of the grillwork one associates with the ancient homes of Spain.

These are extremely decorative, very delicate, and are enclosed on the top as well as the bottom.

One can imagine a lovely lady sitting inside the window and being serenaded from the garden by her caballero with his guitar.

During World War II, the house was loaned to the military.

A detachment of young men were stationed here as a shore defense where they practiced the defense at sea.

They stayed here for many years.

In 1946 and '47, the Huntingtons returned, but after that they never lived here again.

Unfortunately, Archer became the victim of severe arthritis and in his later years was confined to a wheelchair.

However, he was able to visit the studios and appreciate the work that Anna was continuing.

Archer died in 1953, and after that, Anna had the household furnishings moved to their apartment and their homes in New York City, and she never returned.

She was a remarkable lady.

She died at age 97, and she was working throughout her 90s on continued pieces of sculpture, magnificent things we hope to show you.

A very dedicated lady whose hands were never still.

Although she engaged in a social life and visited with relatives, whenever possible her total concentration was placed upon the clay under her fingers and the forms she alone could see in her mind.

She didn't follow any school of art.

She wasn't a Romanticist, naturalist, or Pre-Raphaelite even though many of her contemporaries were.

She simply created works of art as she saw them in her mind.

A remarkable lady with a tremendous gift, a genius.

Today we find the house is empty, although it had a wonderful history of creativity and life within these walls.

Leaving "Atalaya," we travel over the causeway through part of the Huntington estate and into Brookgreen Gardens, an outdoor art museum designed by Archer Huntington.

At the entrance to Brookgreen, we find "Fighting Stallions," one of Anna Hyatt Huntington's most impressive creations.

Now we're in front of her group of brown bears, very cheerful little fellows cast in aluminum in 1935.

I've just read a marker which says, "Dedicated to the appreciation of American sculpture "and to the conservation and preservation of the flora and fauna of South Carolina."

This is a beautiful place.

Welcome to Brookgreen Gardens.

(voice-over) Ou r visit to Brookgreen Gardens was made more enjoyable by visiting with its director, Mr. Gurdon L. Tarbox Jr.

This is a transformed plantation.

We're sitting on the axis of a live oak allée, which was planted about 1750.

It was an English colony.

Down here, you see trees coming up.

The allée extended down to the fountain, almost a half-mile away.

(Mary) Th en these trees are older th an the Constitution?

Yes, and the home was built in back of the gold statue of Dionysius.

This plantation endured through the War Between the States on through until... it fell into the hands of a hunting club.

During the Depression, the hunting club couldn't keep it, and Mr. Huntington bought it.

Didn't Mr. Huntington bu y this property to give employment to people, or did he already envision a living garden of sculpture?

I think initially he bought it for a winter home, a place they could get away from cold New England winters.

Mrs. Huntington ha d tuberculosis?

Yes, but they decided they did not want this for themselves... they wanted this for the public forever.

They formed the corporation Brookgreen Gardens at that time and deeded it to the corporation.

They started acquiring sculpture, first Mrs. Huntington's.

They placed it in these old gardens and started adding others.

Is there a pattern to the layout?

The garden where we are is in the pattern of a butterfly with outstretched wings.

The wings are off that way, four wings.

There's a wing here and then on around.

We're in the middle of the butterfly.

You mentioned Mr s. Huntington's works.

She is considered our foremost Am erican woman sculptor, is she not?

I would say so... everybody might not agree-- Well, books ce rtainly say so!

--but, certainly, in our opinion, she was.

Her works are exhibited in Europe, the United States.

Did she confine herself to monumental works, such as the magnificent "Fighting Stallions" of Brookgreen Gardens?

No...she did all kinds of things.

She's probably best known for her monumental things, like her Joan of Arc, he r El Cid, her Andrew Jackson, and these great pieces we have in South Carolina, and the one at the university, "The Torchbearers," in front of the education building.

These are all monumental, but there are many small pieces of work here.

We have small animals and things.

She was an interesting person.

She played with sculpture.

My wife and I used to know her.

She'd be always working in clay, small models of this and that.

She worked, as other sculptors do, in clay over an armature first, and I read she is considered to be an animalier-- a lover of animals-- and an artist with th e movement and feeling of the emotions of animals.

You'll notice practically every piece of her work has an animal in it... Andrew Jackson on a horse, of course.

Even the piece she did for the Illinois Pavilion at the 1963 World's Fair, Abraham Lincoln was on a horse.

She generally involved an animal somewhere.

On "Diana of the Chase" out front, you see a dog.

On "The Young Diana," a fish.

She loved animals... her home was full of animals.

And she had a feeling fo r their personalities because it co mes through, the love she has fo r these beasts.

And I think the animals loved her too.

Mrs. Huntington wa s a tall lady, but very frail... sh e had tuberculosis.

Did she sculpt with hammer an d chisel all these things?

Did she climb a ladder to do it?

She used a stepladder a lot, because she created the models.

Sculptors and architects have a lot in common.

An architect will create a design for a building, a bridge, or some major construction feature, and they will usually get a contractor to build it.

They are not expected to make the completion.

Sculpture is a three-dimensional art like architecture, so they very often hire people to help them finish.

They will hire people to enlarge the sculpture from their smaller models, to put it in plaster, to do the foundry work or the stonecutting.

Foundry work would be in relation to the bronze?

Yes...the bronze, aluminum, pewter, or any metals.

They are cast at a foundry.

Stone carving is a direct process.

It's carved directly in the stone.

Some sculptors do all of their work.

Some artists are very strict about this.

They feel they must do it all.

But their work is limited because it's an enormously time-consuming task.

After the artist do es the sketch and the work is co ntinued by assistants, does the artist re turn to the piece, or is it out of his or her hands?

Any good artist will follow the entire process.

They will oversee the work being done by the technicians.

Probably the most important part is the very end.

When the piece is being finished, they like to go there and make some final changes themselves, and most all artists do this.

You knew Mrs. Huntington well.

What kind of a lady was she?

She was a very fine lady, very friendly, not overbearing at all.

She made you feel at home, a comfortable person to get along with, very gentle, and a lady in every sense of the word.

Worked until she was 97 wh en she passed away.

Yes...both of the Huntingtons were very meticulous people.

They watched their time carefully.

They did not waste time.

They stayed on a schedule.

They dedicated certain hours of every day to their work.

His was mainly in Spanish literature and history, and hers in sculpture.

They didn't put it off because they didn't feel like it.

They allocated certain times.

They were meticulous, very neat people.

Their home was picked up... they knew where everything was.

They were detail people, very great.

I notice that you mentioned American sculptors.

Why is this restricted to American sculptors?

Mr. Huntington felt that Brookgreen Gardens would represent American sculptors, by naturalization or birth.

He felt that'd be a good limit.

Another limit he chose was that the pieces must be suitable for placement out-of-doors.

They must be in permanent materials, stone or metal, nonferrous metals.

Also, they collected sculpture of a period that was strong in representation.

Everything here at Brookgreen, you don't have to ask what it is.

You can tell whether it's an animal or a person.

The sculpture collection that the trustees are making today is merely an extension of the Huntington collection.

Could you te ll me, sir, what was the dream be hind this garden?

He felt sculpture was best seen out-of-doors.

We saw this from the Egyptians, Gr eeks, Romans, and French.

They used sculpture out-of-doors.

They used space... landscaped spaces.

He felt that Brookgreen would be best done in that manner.

People would come see Brookgreen that wouldn't normally go to a classical museum.

They would come see a garden, and he recognized that this area was undeveloped, but he anticipated enormous growth.

We are seeing the growth today and realize how correct he was in his estimation.

Mr. Huntington wanted sculpture displayed not under a roof, but under the dome of heaven.

Right...this is an outdoor collection of American sculpture within a garden.

A museum doesn't have to have a wall or roof.

We have, as you say, the dome of heaven for a roof.

The floors are flowers and groundcovers and lawns.

This is his dream.

Today the camellias ar e in bloom, so you have a flower garden as well as a sculpture garden.

People come to a garden to see flowers.

We try to have something in bloom all the time.

You'll find things every day of winter.

The winter berries an d colors are beautiful behind th e statuary today.

All this was was an avenue of live oak.

There were other trees in the area.

The gardens were built here.

The walls, sidewalks, plantings, everything you see here, was designed very carefully by Mrs. Huntington.

(Mary in voice-over) "Art is craftsmanship which conceals its own superiority."

Those words of Archer Huntington reveal a philosophy which guided a man and his wife through a lifetime of artistic accomplishments.

Two lives intertwined to create ti meless moments of beauty... two hearts and two minds which perceived the quality of life and the hands of an artist, Anna Hyatt Huntington, to create it.

♪ [piano playing variation on "Pachelbel's Canon"] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Program captioned by: Co mpuScripts Captioning, Inc. 80 3.988.8438 ♪ ♪ ♪