Library Murals
The Progress of Scientific Thought
Above the hallway entrance to the GWHS Library, Gordon Langdon painted The Progress of Scientific Thought.
The two large figures denoting modern [Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Millikan] and ancient [mathematician Euclid] scientific thought respectively illustrate not only the advancement of knowledge, but also the change which has taken place in the mood and technique of those who are searching out new truths. To heighten this contrast yet provide humor, the Goddess of Curiosity [Mrs. Langdon] between the two researchers operates the school's alarms.
Through the use of symbolism he shows the library to be both a citadel of learning and a promontory from which a student may look over human thought from the most distant to modern times.
Langdon was born in San Francisco in 1910. He dropped out of Stanford and studied at the California School of Fine Arts. During the 1930s he shared a studio with Ralph Stackpole. Langdon’s family ranch in Olema was the subject of his Coit Tower mural (Timber and Dairy Industries) which included a self-portrait. After serving in WWII, he abandoned his art career and moved to Palo Alto where he was a salesman until he died of a brain aneurysm in 1963.
Advancement of Knowledge Through the Printing Press
On the Library's east wall is Lucien Labaudt's mural. He related large heads of prominent men to the works they produced: Edgar Allen Poe and The Raven, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Evangeline, John Greenlief Whittier and Bare Foot Boy, Benjamin Franklin and his kite, Thomas Edison and his lamp, William Marton and the application of anaesthesia, scientists mounting a dinosaur. At center, incorporating the wall-mounted clock, Johannes Gutenberg and his assistant print impressions on loose sheets that form a book. History is represented by Captain John Smith and his ship, George Washington with the emblem of the country, Thomas Jefferson with the Louisiana purchase, while in front school boys of different ages are studying history. Abraham Lincoln is connected with emancipation and Junipero Serra with colonization and spreading Christianity. Mrs. Labaudt later recalled that “he didn’t budge on the design.” This representation unintentionally (or intentionally, we don't know) represents required classes of that time.
Labaudt was born in Paris in 1880. He assisted his mother who operated a dressmaking establishment, and after serving in the French Army became head dress designer for a London department store and for City of Paris in San Francisco. He began producing fashion sketches during that time, studied fine art and began painting. He painted the Powell Street mural in Coit Tower and all the Beach Chalet murals. He was killed in a plane crash in Assam in 1943 en route to China for a Life magazine assignment. A Liberty Ship built in Richmond was named for him in 1944.
Contemporary Education
On the Library's west wall is Ralph Stackpole's contribution. The left side shows two girls looking at a fashion magazine while a group is engaged in dressmaking in the background, and a girl in the foreground is using a typewriter. The center has girls and boys in a kitchen studying the art and science of preparing food. On the right side, boys at a table work on a radio chassis and have built a small tower over the wall-mounted speaker, and a group is studying. In the background, students work on an automobile motor. This representation unintentionally (or intentionally, we don't know) depicts elective classes offered at that time. Aside from the boys in the cooking class, the classes are gender-based as was accepted at that time. The mural is notable for inclusion of students of color.
Born in Oregon in 1885, Stackpole came to San Francisco at age 16 to study at the California School of Design (CSFA’s prior name and later the S.F. Art Institute). After the 1906 earthquake, he attend the École des Beaux-Arts in France where he met Diego Rivera, led a years-long effort to bring Rivera to California and introduced him to architect Timothy Pflueger who gave Rivera the Pacific Stock Exchange mural assignment. (Rivera in turn mentored Arnautoff.) Although Stackpole painted other murals including the Industries of California mural in Coit Tower, he was primarily a sculptor and produced sculptures for both the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, as well as the Stock Exchange and Oakland’s Paramount Theater. He died in 1973.
You can help
Your contribution to the Murals Fund helps the Alumni Association preserve the Library murals (in addition to the ravages of time, the Labaudt & Stackpole murals suffered damage in a June 1991 fire) along with all the other art for which GWHS is the fortunate custodian and provide educational materials to GWHS students and interested art scholars. Click the button below or text EAGLES4LIFE to 53-555 and select the Murals Fund.