AI and the Huntington Family Research

Arabella Huntington, Archer Huntington, Collis Huntington, Henry Huntington
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Published by nancyarmitage

Hi! I'm a writer, food & menu blogger of the Huntington Family History. I love Gilded Age menus & gourmet recipes. I am a fine artist/painter, journal-er, gardener, & a herbalist.

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by Nancy Armitage

AI – True or False Information

Where do I start? I know AI helps a lot of people with a “quick sketch” or read about a person, place, or subject. But isn’t it suppose to be true information??!! BTW, Wikipedia has already been doing this for years! But my curator at the Huntington Library never really trusted Wikipedia. He felt it is shared information from a lot of different sources. Some of those sources could be incorrect.

Does AI have correct information??

Is the AI information always correct information?? On the Huntington family research, the answer is a solid no. In fact, 1/3 of the information that I have recently read is completely false. I have been researching the Huntington family history since 2004 (20 + years); some of the statements that I have read on AI, I have never even seen printed before, in the Huntington archives or well-researched books, articles, or blogs. So where are they pulling this false information from?? Or they just making it up??

So beware researchers when using AI when it comes to the Huntington Family Research. It also bugs me that “AI Overview” is the 1st piece of information on a Google search; why aren’t well-researched information, blogs, & articles 1st in line?? Who gave AI so much power on the internet??

Mrs. Henry E. Huntington “Arabella” or Belle” painted by artist Sir Oswald Birley in 1924. Birley was a houseguest of the Huntington’s at their Huntington Mansion on the San Marino Ranch CA in 1924; he painted Arabella & Henry “Edwards” Huntington’s portraits at that time; it took him 1 month to paint both portraits. Remember how Arabella Huntington was enchanted by royalty…. BIrley was a famous Royal & military portrait painter, who painted King George V, Queen Mary, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Sir Winston Churchill, J. P. Morgan, Andrew Mellon, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, & many Admiral & Lieutenants-Colonel of the English Army. This painting hangs at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. This is a blue – black version of this painting. There is another brownish version of the exact same painting hanging at the Hispanic Society of America in NYC, NY. The Hispanic Society was founded by Archer Huntington. Photo credit: Nancy Armitage

The Huntington Family:

Who am I talking about? addressing the Huntington family? 4 major people: 1) Arabella D. Huntington 2) her son, Archer M. Huntington 3) her husband, Collis P. Huntington & 4) her husband, Henry “Edwards” Huntington.

Geneology of the Huntington’s:

If you want the Huntington genealogy & such, go to my blog: Insidethehuntingtonsstory.com & check out 2 blogs of mine: “Let me introduce you to the Huntingtons” & “Henry E. Huntington (Bio) File”. They are both very informative about the Huntington family. Information found at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. It was the former home of Henry E. Huntington’s & Arabella Huntington mansion & estate called “San Marino Ranch” from 1903-1927.

Newpapers all over America gave Mrs. Collis P. Huntington “Arabella” & Henry E. Huntington front page news. They weret married in June of 1913 in American Church in Paris. But they were actually married in April 1913 in Los Angeles, which was called the “legal one”.

Why I started my blog:

I started my blog in 2020, called “InsidetheHuntingtonsstory.com” on WordPress. I started it because of all the incorrect information out there on the Huntington family. I would read brochures, newspaper & magazine articles, & art exhibit books, even printed at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. Some of dates or information were incorrect & it would drive me crazy.

At the time, one of my goals was to make a little Huntington Library guidebook, so that Huntington researchers, Huntington Library guards, or visitors of the Huntington Library could have the Huntington information needed. If they were to write a Huntington story & they could easily have the correct Huntington information. My Huntington Guidebook was rejected by publishers….So my family said, “Write a blog about the Huntingtons, you have all this information, get it out there!”. Which I have always been happy to do. I started writing a blog once a week & that was too overwhelming. Then I started writing a blog once a month which was perfect.

I admit my articles/blogs are long, but there is a ton of Huntington information to share. I also take the time in each blog to explain all the family details, that are sometimes quite confusing. Many of the Huntington family have the same names, lots of Helens, Edwards, Collis’s, Claras, & Carries. There are 12 different “Mrs. Huntingtons” (Arabella being 2 of them), I had to figure out who all these Huntington ladies were. The Huntington story is already a confusing story. I write each blog as if a reader might not know anything about the Huntington family. I did this so people don’t interpret the information wrong, I try to explain it to the reader. See below. So I now know what it fells like to get totally mis-quoted!! I feel pretty deflated with all this incorrect information out there now thanks to “AI”…. After 6 years of trying my hardest to write the correct Huntington story.

A letter to the Henry E. Huntington’s Head Housekeeper Nora Larsen at the San Marino Ranch, CA. The letter is from Mrs. Arabella Huntington but written by Miss “Carrie” Caroline M. Campbell, her Social Secretary. It is a very interesting story in my blog. about the Huntington Head Housekeeper- Cook Miss Nora Larsen. Letter found at the Huntington Library- San Marino, CA Photo credit: Nancy Armitage

Some of the AI whoppers (false info) I found:

False AI: Collis is Arabella’s brother, oh my goodness, where did they get this information?? It’s wrong!!

True: Collis P. Huntington (B. 1821) & Mrs. Arabella “Belle” Yarrington Worsham (B. June 1, 1850) were husband & wife. They got married in 1884 in NYC. Collis P. Huntington died in 1900, so they were married for 16 years. In society, she still remained: “Mrs. Collis P. Huntington” until she married Henry Edwards Huntington in 1913. Always, signing her name Mrs. Arabella D. Huntington.

False AI: “Mrs. Arabella Huntington’s time in Paris is documented in her diaries”.

True: Much of the AI copy on this statement is from my blog titled: “Mrs. Arabella Huntington in Paris in 1907”. The illustrations & journals I refer to in my blog, are my drawings, my sketches, & my illustrations, they are not Arabella Huntington’s.

Mrs. Arabella Huntington (as far as we know it), didn’t have any diaries. If she did have diaries, they were destroyed by her personal secretary, Miss Caroline M. Campbell at Mrs. Huntington’s request after she died in 1924. Thinking they were silly & frivolous, Mrs. Huntington asked her secretary to burn all her personal papers.

False AI: Clara Huntington Hatzfeldt is Arabella Huntington’s sister.

True: Clara Prentice Huntington (Princess Clara Hatzfeldt) was the adopted daughter to Collis P. Huntington. Making Arabella Huntington Clara’s stepmother actually. Clara became Princess Clara Hatzfeldt & lived in London & Windsor in England. Clara Prentice Huntington’s sister is Mary Alice Prentice, who was Henry Edward Huntington’s (HEH) 1st wife.

False AI: Henry & Arabella Huntington “had no children” – this statement is misleading.

True: They did have children, but not together. Arabella Huntington had a son named Archer M. Huntington. H. E. Huntington had 4 children with his 1st wife – Mary Alice Huntington, a son named Howard & 3 daughters: Elizabeth ” Bessie”, Marion, & Clara nicknamed “Peggy”.

False: Mrs. Arabella “Duvalle” Huntington’s name & death date in 1925.

True: Mrs. Arabella Huntington middle name is spelt “Duval”. In the Smithsonian Museum, they spell it “Duval” & they have her personal papers. But they (Smithsonian) have her dates wrong, Mrs. Arabella D. Huntington, Arabella Duval Yarrington Born in June 1, 1850 & died in September 16, 1924 at her Huntington Mansion, No 2 E..57th St. NYC, NY.

AI: Access to Records of “Arabella Duval Huntington Papers” [B. 1850 & D. 1924] they are housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

In addition: Mrs. Arabella Duval [Yarrington Worsham] Huntington Papers are also at Syracuse University, NY & the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA (Arabella Letters, Affidavits, Charities, Mrs. Arabella D. Huntington’s Will, Jewelry list, Invoices, Bank deposits, Documents, & Dinner Menus)

False: Mrs. Arabella Huntington owned a painting called The Quai- Saint-Michel & Norte-Dame Cathedral by Maximilien Luce.

True: Mrs. Arabella Huntington as far as I know do not own this pastel painting by Luce. AI assumes this falsehood by one of my photographs, I put on my blog. The blog is called “1907 Mrs. Arabella Huntington, Art Collector” in my blog “Insidethehuntingtonsstory.com”. The blog is about Arabella in Paris. I included the beautiful photo of a Monet-like pastel painting of The Quai – Saint -Michel & Notre-Dame Cathedral. This lovely painting was to illustrate the beauty of Paris. Mrs. Huntington (as I said on my blog) owned a Zorn, a Whistler, & several Mary Cassatt pastel paintings, but not this Luce painting.

False: “Belle Worsham traveled with Collis Huntington to Yosemite in 1878. The two, along with some of Collis Huntington’s family toured the area & stayed at the Yosemite Falls Hotel”.

True: This book AI is quoting from is a fictional novel called “An American Beauty”. Its not a biography of Mrs. Arabella Huntington, its a fictional novel! The authoress takes lots of artistic license all over the pages of this book. Isn’t AI information suppose to be true, not false!!

The Yosemite Valley Railroad was in operation from 1907 to 1945. Collis Huntington died in 1900, so he never went on this railroad. Maybe Henry E. Huntington did. I personally took a bus trip (10 hours) from Southern California to Yosemite & it was quite a difficult trip. There is no way Arabella took a stagecoach up to rural Yosemite Valley, CA. Also, there is no hotel called Yosemite Falls Hotel; the main hotels is the Ahwahnee Hotel & the Sentinel Hotel, Yosemite, California.

Waterfall stream thru the rocks