Caprock Chronicles: The Peter Hurd Mural in Holden Hall

Editor’s Note: Jack Becker is the editor of Caprock Chronicle, a Librarian Emeritus, Texas Tech University Libraries. He can be reached at jack.becker@ttu.edu. Todays article, by H. Allen Anderson, first appeared in the Chronicles on Nov., 26, 2017, and is reprinted here a part of the ongoing 100th year anniversary of Texas Tech.

Almost from the time Texas Technological College opened its doors in the fall of 1925, one of its aims was to preserve the pioneer past of the Llano Estacado and its Hub City.

Thus, in the spring of 1929 several faculty and administrators, led by Dean of Women Mary Woodward Doak, gathered many townspeople of like interest together to form the Plains Museum Society. They also created a museum on the Tech campus.

William Curry Holden, who joined the Tech history faculty that summer, took over the museum's curatorial duties. In 1934, it became clear that another, permanent museum facility was needed. But, during the Great Depression, funds were short.

Finally, in the Texas Centennial year of 1936, the West Texas Museum Association (the name had been changed to maintain a wider regional support) received enough money to construct a basement or ground floor unit.

Then, in 1950, following World War Il, the Association obtained funds and state money to complete the upper stories of the building, including a 16-sided rotunda.

From the start, the Museum Association's Board of Trustees planned to enhance the large rotunda with artwork depicting area history and pioneers. After much deliberation, the Trustees decided on a continuous fresco-type mural, completely encircling the rotunda, beginning four feet above the main floor and extending to the mezzanine floor above.

For the artist, they chose the Southwestern regionalist Peter Hurd, son-in-law of the late nationally known artist and illustrator N.C. Wyeth.

Starting with rough, preliminary charcoal sketches and utilizing techniques dating back to the era of Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists, Hurd commenced work on the fresco in October 1952.

In addition to his wife, portraitist Henriette Wyeth, two protégés, Manuel G. Acosta and John L. Meigs, assisted him. They slaked and cured lime for several months in a pit behind the building to provide smooth mortar for the fresco.

Lauro Cavazos, future Texas Tech president, recalled watching Hurd "up [on the scaffold] painting, and it was just a gorgeous addition."

Many curious people dropped by to see the creation of "their mural," and groups of school children with their teachers came on special field trips to watch the artists at work.

Whenever possible, Hurd had his pioneer subjects come sit and pose for him, while others, particularly those who had already passed on, he painted from old photographs and other models selected by their families.

Covering a total of 1,300 square feet of wall space, a near life-size portrait of an area pioneer was painted in each of the 16 panels, back-dropped by an unbroken panorama of daily plains life over a typical 24-hour period during the frontier days around the turn of the 20th Century.

Among the personalities chosen as representative of their time and professions were banker Charles E. Maedgen and university president Clifford B. Jones, both of whom were on the Museum Board of Trustees.

While the entire process took two years, the mural was completed in time for its official dedication on Nov. 1, 1954.

Author and historian Paul Horgan, spoke at the dedication ceremony and compared the 16 figures to the "saints in the Gothic paintings of Europe," He went on to state the "media(s) that sustain our human life — air, moisture, light — are imitated upon these walls in magic essence." A 30-minute color documentary film, "Peter Hurd Paints a Fresco," was distributed and shown at many museum conferences throughout the nation.

For over 15 years, the West Texas Museum, with its mural, was the most visited building on the Tech campus. But by the end of the 1960s, shortage of adequate space for display of its ever-expanding collections of art and artifacts, plus the need for a larger staff, prompted the building of the present Museum of Texas Tech facility, with its Moody Planetarium, on Lubbock's Fourth Street.

Later, on the wall above the Museum’s gift shop, Peter Rogers, Peter Hurd's son-in-law and a muralist in his own right, created a peaceful, pastoral scene emphasizing the importance of water to life on the semi-arid plains. Peter used only black ink, a far different type of media from the Hurd mural.

The former West Texas Museum building was remodeled and transformed into Holden Hall, which now houses the offices of the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Additions for classrooms and office space, erected in the 1970s, house the departments of history, economics and political science.

Students who rush through the rotunda on their way to and from classes often hardly notice the dimly-lit showpiece. Yet there are those who do pause and reflect on this visual reminder of the West Texas region's founders and pioneer past.

To this day, the Peter Hurd mural remains as a progenitor to the University's public art and continues to deserve recognition as a prime example of the fresco genre and a true art treasure.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Caprock Chronicles: The Peter Hurd Mural in Holden Hall