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America’s First Agricultural College, 1938
Henry Bernstein (American, 1912 – 1964)
Mural
MSU Libraries, Main Library, first floor
 Originally
commissioned by the Treasury
Section of Fine Arts of the WPA for
the old East Lansing Post Office on Abbott Road (now Dublin Sqaure 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 WPA 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.
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