Michigan State University: Main Library Mural – East Lansing MI

Description

Michigan State University’s main library houses a mural by Henry Bernstein titled “America’s First Agricultural College.” The work was first created for the then-new East Lansing post office.

From the Kresge Art Museum New Deal Walking Tour: “Originally commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts … for the old East Lansing Post Office on Abbott Road (now Dublin Square Pub), this mural is typical of the emphasis on representational art, scenes of local history, and nostalgia for the disappearing rural life. The Section, however, did not initially approve of Bernstein’s proposals for the mural, which all related to Michigan State University. Although Bernstein felt that the communities of East Lansing and MSU were intertwined, the Section thought that scenes of student life were inappropriate for a public commission. Of the three proposals, scientific farming, students studying, and students at leisure, the Section finally approved farming, the most prevalent theme depicted in … murals in post offices. Farming was a definitive part of the environment of small town communities in the Midwest, and especially important to Michigan State University, the first agricultural college. Bernstein incorporated many of the typical components of farming murals encouraged by the Section. The mural depicts five agricultural students in nineteenth century dress reaping a harvest and has a general aura of prosperity and hard work emphasized by the large, healthy looking animals, abundance of produce, and the absence of modern machinery – here replaced by an old-fashioned scythe. The mural was removed from the Post Office when it was closed and placed on permanent loan to the MSU Libraries, where it can be seen on the first floor.”