Mural
Overview
The WPA (Works Progress Administration and later Work Project Administration) was a federal New Deal agency founded in 1935. Its mission was to employ some of the millions unemployed during the Great Depression to create public buildings and roads. Both Richmond High School and McGuire Memorial Hall were funded in part by the WPA.
Many WPA buildings have murals depicting men and women at work. It was a longtime dream of RAM Executive Director Shaun Dingwerth to have a WPA-style mural in McGuire Auditorium. Thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor, that dream became reality when 1994 RHS graduate Amy Rheinhardt completed the panels in January 2024.
Reinhardt graduated from the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis in 2001. She has received multiple awards for both her fine art and mural work, including a 2009 Creative Renewal Fellowship Grant from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.
Each panel is done in oil on canvas and affixed like wallpaper. A trompe l’oeil “frame” mimics the auditorium’s architecture. A wood frame secures the paintings to the wall.
Panel 1
1 Richmond as it appeared before the Richmond Art Association (later the Richmond Art Museum) was founded in 1898. The city traces its roots to 1806, when David Hoover, a Quaker, is said to have led four friends westward to the middle fork of the Whitewater River.
2 The Whitewater Gorge was a formidable barrier to traveling further west. The two-lane covered Old Main Street Bridge was constructed over the gorge in 1834, and remained in service until 1893.
3 The Richmond Group was the first of two art colonies established in Indiana, with origins dating back to 1870. It was composed primarily of “home people” from east-central Indiana, and involved with the art association from its beginning. They did much of their painting “en plein air” or outdoors. Two regular RAM summer events provide opportunities for artists and patrons to enjoy plein air painting.
4 In 2003, RAM took art out of doors in a different way with a joint exhibition on the campus of Indiana University East. Greg Hull, a 1981 Richmond High School graduate, created Ornithoptor, a collection of nine 8-foot “paper” airplanes constructed from sheets of plywood made foldable with long piano hinges. Hull teaches sculpture and is dean at the Herron School of Art + Design at IU Indianapolis.
5 Hull also created Cocolith, the red three-dimensional piece shown in the “interior” of the art museum, where the display also includes 6 Bluebells, Cockle Shells, Easy Ivy Over, mixed media by 1976 Richmond High School graduate and retired RHS art teacher India Cruse-Griffin; 7 a tongue-in-cheek portrait of the carpenter who built the murals’ wood frames; and 8 an untitled view of trees in Fiesole, Florence, by Danish-American artist John Christen Johansen (1876-1965). The Johansen piece was selected by RAM’s first director, Ella Bond Johnston, from the artist’s 1909 one-man show of works done in Italy and procured for the museum thanks to the Reid Purchase Fund, started in 1903 by 9 Daniel G. Reid (1858-1925) to help in the acquisition of important works of art. Reid was born in Richmond. After making his fortune in New York, he gave back generously to his hometown, funding a hospital (Reid Health), a church (now The Reid Center), and, through the $500 annual purchase award, eight paintings, seven of which are still in RAM’s permanent collection. Here, Reid is contemplating 10 Sibyl, a sculpture created by Tom Bartel, who graduated from RHS in 1967 and taught art here for 13 years before his retirement. Two more of Bartel’s sculptures are on permanent display in the lobby.
11 Richmond was once known as the Rose City, thanks primarily to the presence of Hills’ Roses, a family-owned company that began in 1881 and closed in 2007. E.G. Hill was an internationally famous rose hybridizer. His son, Joseph H. Hill, created many new types of award-winning roses. During the Great Depression, the younger Hill developed the Better Times Rose which, unlike most red roses on the market, was profitable for greenhouses to grow and sell. The Richmond Rose Garden in Glen Miller Park is a reminder of that long tradition.
Panel 2
Background, left to right: 1 The Wayne County Courthouse, completed in 1893, is built of brick and faced with Indiana limestone in Romanesque Revival style. 2 Richmond Baking Company is the oldest family-owned cookie and cracker maker in the country. The Quigg family has supported the community for generations, including service on the RAM board of directors. 3 Richmond’s neo-classical Pennsylvania Railroad Depot. In 1902, famed architect Daniel Burnham was commissioned to design the building, which has been rescued from a deteriorating state and is now the hub of a thriving Historic Depot District. 4 Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright both attended Richmond schools before moving to Dayton, Ohio, and developing their successful airplane, which made its first flight in 1903. The family moved six weeks before Wilbur was to graduate from high school here. He was awarded a posthumous degree from RHS in 1994.
5 Elwood McGuire Jr. of Dille and McGuire Manufacturing Company patented a 40-pound push mower in 1875. It was the “official mower” of the Columbian Exposition or World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. In the first half of the 20th century, Dille and McGuire and about a dozen other Richmond manufacturers helped the city earn the nickname “Lawn Mower Capital of the World.”
6 This runabout represents the several kinds of cars made in Richmond for Davis, Pilot, Westcott and other automotive companies. A runabout was a light, inexpensive open car with basic body work and no windshield, roof or doors. It closely resembled a horse-drawn carriage.
7 C. Frances Jenkins (1867-1934) created an early motion picture projector called the Phantoscope. Jenkins claimed to have used it to show the first-ever live-action “movie” at his cousin’s downtown Richmond jewelry store in 1894. The film featured vaudeville performer Annabelle in the Butterfly Dance. It was reported that some audience members were so scandalized by the dancer’s bare ankles that they left the room – hence the empty chair and the woman’s gesture of shock. RAM’s annual Phantoscope High School Film Festival is named in honor of that special Richmond event.
8 May Francis Aufderheide Kaufman (1888-1972) was probably the best known female composer of ragtime music. Born in Indianapolis, she married Richmond architect Thomas Kaufman and many of her most popular tunes including “The Richmond Rag” (1909), “A Totally Different Song” (1910), and “Novelty Rag” (1911) were written while she lived in Richmond,
9 Kaufman is shown dancing to music on a phonograph, a nod to Gennett Records, a Richmond company that flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael. Its roster also included Jelly Roll Morton and Gene Autry.
10 Pianos have a special place in Richmond history. In 1893, the Starr Piano Company was one of the biggest employers in town, with a six-story factory in the gorge powered by the river. By the 1920s, the company expanded from pianos to phonographs. From there, the next step was to begin producing Gennett Records. The company did not survive long after the Great Depression and the factory fell into disrepair, but it has been stabilized and now belongs to the Richmond Parks Department and is the site of the winter farmers market and a variety of special events.
Panel 3
1 McGuire Memorial Hall is home to the Richmond Art Museum, the second oldest museum in the State of Indiana. It was designed as the arts wing of the “new” Richmond High School, completed in 1941. The hall was dedicated on December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day), represented in the upper left of the panel. During the hall’s dedication ceremony, news of the attack on the Naval base in Hawaii was announced from the stage in this room.
2 The National Road (now U.S. 40) was the first federally funded highway in America. Its passage through the heart of Richmond led to the growth of the city and the success of many of its industries.
3 Wayne Works, originally a manufacturer of farm implements, carriages, and automobiles in Richmond, built its first bus in 1914 and was a major producer of school and public transportation buses through most of the 20th century. This bus also represents the close ties of RAM to Richmond Community Schools and the museum’s focus on introducing young people to the visual arts.
4 Elizabeth Reller (1913-1974) was active in the Dramatic Club while attending high school in Richmond, later performing as a radio and Broadway actress from 1935-1948. Her radio roles included Betty on Bob and Betty, Connie on Doc Barclay’s Daughters, Kitty on Michael and Kitty, and Ann Malone on Young Doctor Malone. She graduated from RHS in 1931.
5 Charles McGuire (1875-1961) was president and treasurer of Dille & McGuire Manufacturing (see Panel Two, Item 5), who donated $50,000 toward construction of McGuire Memorial Hall “as a living tribute to the memory of my mother.” McGuire also contributed generously to Reid Memorial Hospital (now Reid Health) and Earlham College.
6 Mary Haas (1910-1996) graduated from RHS in 1926 and earned a doctorate in linguistics from Yale University in 1935. Her specialty was the grammar and vocabulary of nearly extinct Native American languages, including Tunica (once spoken in what is now Louisiana), Natchez, Creek, and Choctaw.
7 Joseph Maddy (1892-1966) was persuaded to take a music teaching position at Richmond High School by Will Earhart (1871-1960), who is credited with organizing the first public high school orchestra here in 1900. Maddy taught at RHS from 1921-24 before moving to Michigan, where in 1928, he founded a high school orchestra camp, now known as Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Panel 4
1 Jeff Hamilton, an American jazz drummer and former member of the L.A. Four and co-leader of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, graduated from Richmond High School in 1971. Hamilton has played with pianist Monty Alexander, bandleader Woody Herman and singer Rosemary Clooney. He now works extensively with singer Diana Krall and visits Richmond often.
2 Jack Everly is Principal Pops Conductor of Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as well as orchestras in Baltimore, Naples (Florida), and Ottawa, Canada. Since 2010, he has been music director for the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth, leading the National Symphony Orchestra and reaching millions of viewers on PBS. Everly graduated from RHS in 1970.
3 William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) is shown preparing to paint his Self-Portrait in the Studio, a highlight of RAM’s permanent collection. Chase was born in what is now Ninevah, Indiana, but when Ella Bond Johnston, the Art Association’s first director, approached him about a self-portrait, she didn’t know that. Chase had heard of her efforts to create a world-class museum in Richmond and agreed to Johnston’s $500 commission – far less than he could have demanded – provided by a local business leader. The piece is now one of the most valuable in RAM’s permanent collection and is on permanent display.
4 Gaar Williams (1880-1935) was a prominent American cartoonist who worked for the Indianapolis News and Chicago Tribune. He drew his first cartoons for publication while on the staff for the Richmond High School magazine called the Argus. He graduated in 1901. At the time of his death, his cartoons were carried by 39 newspapers around the country.
5 Robert Indiana (1928-2018) Although born in New Castle, Robert Indiana had strong ties to Richmond. As an infant, he was cared for by the Kuhlmans of Richmond before being adopted. Indiana kept in touch with the Kuhlmans for decades, and hundreds of letters from him to the family are in the RAM archives. He is best known for the ‘Love’ design which he never copyrighted. The canvas depicted here shows one of a series he did with numbers and circles.
6 James Thomas Ramey ‘Baby Huey’ (1940-1970), an American soul and R&B singer, was front man for the band Baby Huey and the Babysitters. His sole LP (released posthumously and produced by Curtis Mayfield) is considered a classic of its period and became an important influence on Hip Hop music. Ramey graduated from RHS in 1963. Melvyn ‘Deacon’ Jones (1943-2017), who graduated RHS in 1962, was also in the band as a trumpet player and organist.
7 Sandra Rowe, a painter, sculptor, printmaker and installation artist, was born in Richmond but is active in Southern California. In 1987, she became the first artist in residence at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. RAM exhibited her work in an exhibition titled Illumination in 1997.
8 Harold Jones is an American pop and jazz drummer who played on the McGuire Stage while attending Richmond High School. He has been drummer for countless musicians, most notably Count Basie Orchestra, Tony Bennett. Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, and Ray Charles. He graduated from RHS in 1958.
9 Katie Reihman, a 2004 Richmond graduate, is currently Lighting & Compositing Director at Nickelodeon Animation. A gifted artist from an early age, Katie won Best of Show in the Richmond High School Art Exhibition her senior year. A graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, she previously worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
10 Thomas (Timmy) Allen Brown (1937-2020) was an American singer, professional football player and actor. He was born in Richmond and played Captain Oliver ‘Spearchucker’ Jones on the TV version of M*A*S*H, as well as appearing in another role in the film version. In the NFL, he played for the Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Colts.
11 Born in Richmond, George Duning (1908-2000) started his musical career as a trumpet and piano player for the Kay Kyser band. After signing with Columbia Pictures, Duning composed scores for films as diverse as Picnic, The World of Suzie Wong, and Bell, Book, and Candle, as well as classic westerns such as the original 3:10 to Yuma. His TV credits include Star Trek, The Big Valley, and Naked City.
12 Jessica Lakoff Cannon, a 2001 Richmond graduate, is a camera operator known for her work on the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, along with television credits for Outer Range, Winning Time, High Desert, Gaslit, Goliath, and Star Trek: Picard. Her mentor, cinematographer and director of photography Larry Blanford, is a 1977 RHS graduate. Blanford’s numerous film credits include X-Men Days of Future Past. He got his start as a camera operator with the 1986 film Top Gun.
13 Richmond native Norman (Nick) Hoeffer Foster (1903-1976) was a film director, screenwriter and actor who directed several Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films and worked on projects for Orson Welles and Walt Disney. His greatest fame, however, came from his work on Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett, which appeared for the first time on television screens in 1954.
Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Contact Us
Richmond Art Museum © 2020. All Rights Reserved
Privacy Policy