The Epic of American Civilization – Sharp Eye

Dartmouth College – The Mural Commission

  Dartmouth College was founded in 1769 by a Congregational Minister, Eleazar Wheelock, and a Native American, Samson         Occom, to educate young men.  Today the college is led by cognitive scientist, Ms. Sien Beilock, who supervises 6,746 coed          students in many academic disciplines.  One of the great treasures on the campus is the Baker Library, built in 1928, with funds from George Baker in honor of his uncle, Fisher Baker, who was a graduate in the class of 1859 and a civil war survivor.

Baker Library, Dartmouth College

Current President, Ms. Sien Beilock

Located in the basement of this research library is a mural cycle of 24 panels measuring 3200 running feet painted between 1932 and 1934 by Mexican muralist, José Clemente Orozco.  The story of how this artist came to Hanover is a complex tale of cultural diplomacy at work.

Reference Room, Baker Library

The story begins with graduate Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller and his father meeting the then President of Dartmouth, Ernest Hopkins, in Bar Harbor, Maine while both were there on summer vacation.   John Rockefeller Jr. spoke to Hopkins about taking Nelson to Dartmouth, as he had been turned down at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton where his brothers were enrolled as he suffered from dyslexia which in those days was diagnosed as “laziness.”  John Jr. told Hopkins if he took Nelson there was nothing he would not do for the College.  Nelson was then enrolled from 1926-1930, and his father gave the address at his graduation ceremony.  John also put Hopkins on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation which paid for the operating deficit of the College each year from 1926 to 1942, a hefty sum in the midst of the national depression.

Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979)

Additionally, Nelson’s mother, Abby Rockefeller, had been busy buying art in New York City and founding the Museum of Modern Art in 1929 as she had access to  the Rockefeller family fortunes linked to 50% of the oil and gas leases in Mexico until they were nationalized in 1938 by the Mexican government.  Abby also started a fund at Dartmouth to support visiting artists, and she suggested that perhaps Diego Rivera or José Clemente Orozco from Mexico could be brought to the campus.

Abby and John Rockefeller Jr.

Rivera was busy at that time doing murals in Detroit for Edsel Ford. Two professors from the College, Artemis Packard and Jerry Lathrop, were approached by Alma Reed who was an art dealer in New York who knew Abby.  Alma Reed sent them some drawings by Orozco, and they invited him to do a small mural installation in Carpenter Hall which led into the Baker Library.  While there, Orozco walked through the reading room and saw the 3200 feet of empty wall space.  He was quoted as saying, “These might be the walls of my dreams.”

José Clemente Orozco

José Orozco had lost his left hand during a firecracker incident at age 21.  Previously intending to be an architect, he migrated to being an artist and supporting his family with commissions for newspaper cartoons or public art works in Mexico City.

Part of the Rockefeller grant allowed Orozco to go to Europe for three months before he started the murals at the College. He saw great artistic treasures in Rome, Venice, Florence, Madrid, and London. This trip no doubt enhanced his murals.

Panel One:  This panel depicts the origins of indigenous American civilization as the artwork moves forward around the room. The domestication of corn is a feature here.

Migration Panel

Panel Five:

Coming of Quetzalcoatl

In this panel, Orozco refers to the Mesoamerican myth of the arrival of the white man, known to the local tribes as Quetzalcoatl, who came to Latin America to bring the blessings of civilization such as culture and learning. Behind him are some of the Aztec gods of rain, fire, magic, and death which he is using to teach his people in the image below about the basics of modern society.

Panel 15: Gods of the Modern World

President Hopkins was needless to say confronted by faculty over the content of this image which depicted skeletons dressed in academic garb presiding over the birth of a fetus from a naked skeleton with flames of Cortez’ burning ships behind them.  Professor Lathrop wrote, “Orozco is shocking us into the realization that education must not ignore the real world and not let pomp and circumstance negate the true role of vital educational leadership.“ Despite published protests from parents who did not want their sons sitting under such violent images, Hopkins did not ask Orozco to remove it, even though he offered to do so if it embarrassed the College.

Preliminary sketch.

Panel 20: Modern Industrial Man

Orozco finished his mural cycle with an image across the room from the reserve desk with a quiet student reading a book in front of unfinished construction, presumably for more buildings on the Dartmouth campus.   His training as an architect is evident here in the depiction of the complex infrastructure design.   Dartmouth Professor Mary Coffey added that his message in this panel was designed to depict heroic realism and a universal message of the accomplishments of higher education such as those produced at Dartmouth College.

In conclusion, there are excellent brochures and podcasts available online and at the reserve desk of the College for all visitors. Thanks to additional funding, the College has also acquired from the Orozco family many of his preliminary drawings available for future study. In 2013, the murals were also declared a National Historic Landmark for their valuable contribution to the heritage of the Americas.

Sources Consulted:

Bibliography: The Epic of American Civilization

1. Ades, Dawn. Art in Latin America: The Modern Era 1820-1980. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1989.
2. Anreus, Alejandro. Orozco in Gringoland. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 2001.
3. Baas, Jacquelyn. Orozco’s Dartmouth Mural. Brochure in Baker Library, 1989.
4. Brenner, Anita. Idols Behind Altars: Modern Mexican Art and Its Cultural Roots. New York: Dover Publications, 2002.
5. Carrasco, David. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
6. Chernow, Ron. Titan: The Life of John Rockefeller Sr. New York: Random House, Inc, 1998.
7. Coffey, Mary. How Revolutionary Art Became Official Culture. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012.
8. Lathrop, Churchill. Hanover: Memoirs and Files. Rauner Library, Dartmouth College, 1984.
9. Lee, Anthony. Painting on the Left. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
10. Mello, Renato. José Clemente Orozco in the United States, W.W. Norton and Co., 2002.
11. Widmayer, Charles. Hopkins of Dartmouth. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1977.
12. USA: F.B.I. files, 5 USC. 552.  Freedom of Information Act, 1974.