Photo: Jim Wilson / The New York Times / Redux
Smithsonian Magazine published a story by David Preston about young George Washington and his role in the French Indian War. Preston also briefly reports on the struggle to save the Arnautoff mural at the George Washington High School.
“The city’s board of education initially voted to paint over the murals, but hundreds of academics and preservationists protested and signed a petition. Richard A Walker, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus who leads the Living New Deal project, insisted that the murals had been designed to show “uncomfortable facts” about the nation’s first president. In August, the school board voted to cover the paintings rather than destroy them.”
Read more here.