A Pageant of Oregon History
Tax deductible
Recovery and Restoration of Abernethy's WPA Mural
"A Pageant of Oregon History" by Erich Lamade.
"A Pageant of Oregon History" is a historically significant piece of Oregon cultural heritage, painted as a WPA Federal Arts Project commission between 1939-1940, by artist Erich Lamade.
The mural portrays the people and events in the history of our state, and was designed as a linear, chronological frieze that surrounds the Old Library of Abernethy Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. Native peoples from various Oregon tribes are portrayed in their many activities, and intersecting with key historic figures of explorers, merchants and pioneers up to the WWII period.
In the late 1950s, the mural was whitewashed and quickly forgotten, so this conservation project will recover what is essentially a lost work of art, hidden in plain sight. Until 2007, the original aspect of the mural was known exclusively through black and white archival photographs obtained from the GSA (Washington D.C.).
Heritage Conservation Group Project researchers discovered the mural location within the school, and performed testing in 2007 to determine the condition of the mural discovered below six layers of paint, uncovering a 12" square of the mural (of a Native American's face) in the South East corner.
SE corner with cleaning test
This project will focus on recovery of the mural as well as the architectural context of the Old Library to complete the historic preservation of the space. The restoration of the mural will constitute an extraordinary and high profile recovery of threatened cultural heritage, and a rare opportunity to return a work back to the inventory of New Deal art work in our state as a valuable shared resource and treasure for future generations.
The context of the Abernethy mural within an elementary school makes the project even more compelling. Cultural heritage within the schools is an invaluable and much needed means to instill a sense of common identity, history, pride of place, and to renew the commitment to preserve cultural heritage for the next generation.
We are currently raising fund through grants, foundations and private donors and have raised a total of $40,000 to date. The entire project, include the mural recovery/restoration, historic architectural preservation of the Old Library and dissemination will total $255,040. Because of the size of this project, we have broken the recovery of the mural into phases. This first fundraising opportunity will uncover the Southeast and the South Wall of the mural, 77 sq. ft of the total 302 sq ft of mural. Planning and treatment will be carried out by Heritage Conservation Group, LLC (HCG) a team of leading Oregon preservation professionals working to the highest standards of the field.
South wall: Native tribes and the Lewis and Clark expedition.
West wall: scenes of Fort Vancouver and Champoeg, with John McLoughlin.
North wall: Oregon Trail pioneers arrive in wagons and carriages, with George Abernethy, first Provisional Governor, George Curry, last Governor of the Oregon Territory, and John Whiteaker, First Governor of the State of Oregon.
NE wall: Timber products, Oregon's top economic resource in the 1930s, being loading onto ships.
"A Pageant of Oregon History" by Erich Lamade.
"A Pageant of Oregon History" is a historically significant piece of Oregon cultural heritage, painted as a WPA Federal Arts Project commission between 1939-1940, by artist Erich Lamade.
The mural portrays the people and events in the history of our state, and was designed as a linear, chronological frieze that surrounds the Old Library of Abernethy Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. Native peoples from various Oregon tribes are portrayed in their many activities, and intersecting with key historic figures of explorers, merchants and pioneers up to the WWII period.
In the late 1950s, the mural was whitewashed and quickly forgotten, so this conservation project will recover what is essentially a lost work of art, hidden in plain sight. Until 2007, the original aspect of the mural was known exclusively through black and white archival photographs obtained from the GSA (Washington D.C.).
Heritage Conservation Group Project researchers discovered the mural location within the school, and performed testing in 2007 to determine the condition of the mural discovered below six layers of paint, uncovering a 12" square of the mural (of a Native American's face) in the South East corner.
SE corner with cleaning testThis project will focus on recovery of the mural as well as the architectural context of the Old Library to complete the historic preservation of the space. The restoration of the mural will constitute an extraordinary and high profile recovery of threatened cultural heritage, and a rare opportunity to return a work back to the inventory of New Deal art work in our state as a valuable shared resource and treasure for future generations.
The context of the Abernethy mural within an elementary school makes the project even more compelling. Cultural heritage within the schools is an invaluable and much needed means to instill a sense of common identity, history, pride of place, and to renew the commitment to preserve cultural heritage for the next generation.
We are currently raising fund through grants, foundations and private donors and have raised a total of $40,000 to date. The entire project, include the mural recovery/restoration, historic architectural preservation of the Old Library and dissemination will total $255,040. Because of the size of this project, we have broken the recovery of the mural into phases. This first fundraising opportunity will uncover the Southeast and the South Wall of the mural, 77 sq. ft of the total 302 sq ft of mural. Planning and treatment will be carried out by Heritage Conservation Group, LLC (HCG) a team of leading Oregon preservation professionals working to the highest standards of the field.
South wall: Native tribes and the Lewis and Clark expedition.West wall: scenes of Fort Vancouver and Champoeg, with John McLoughlin.North wall: Oregon Trail pioneers arrive in wagons and carriages, with George Abernethy, first Provisional Governor, George Curry, last Governor of the Oregon Territory, and John Whiteaker, First Governor of the State of Oregon. NE wall: Timber products, Oregon's top economic resource in the 1930s, being loading onto ships.Organizer
Rosie Platt
Organizer
Portland, OR
PTA Oregon Congress (Abernethy Elementary School Pta)
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
