The Smith Room

Smith Room, Suzzallo Library. View from south side facing north.

The Smith Room

Three students who are part of a CAIIS-sponsored knowledge family are calling for UW to do more than just acknowledge their complicated histories—they’re calling for real actions to be taken. The students—Kaydance Levesque, Wes Calf Robe, and Ailani Baldwin—are being led by Professor Jessica Bissett Perea in their work to actually decolonize a major university space—The Smith Room.

The Smith Room is a meeting space located in the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries which is available for rent to the UW community. The room was formerly known as the Northwest History Room and has remained fairly unchanged since its original design between 1935-1940. The room displays three problematic murals on its walls, the content of which depicts the “Manifest Destiny” mindset of colonial interests during the time of western expansion. The murals were painted in 1934, and have remained untouched apart from preservation efforts. However, due to controversy over their display, the University Libraries have now posted a small, physical placard in the room itself, along with an acknowledgement in their descriptions on the University Libraries website. For an unknown reason, the Smith Room Mural #1 is not in the libraries’ virtual database and it is unclear if it is still up in the room. The physical acknowledgement reads:

There are several original wall murals in the Smith Room that depict relations between European explorers and settlers and Native Americans that celebrate what was seen in the 1930s as the triumph of western settlement and Manifest Destiny over the land and people who were here before.This view perpetuates a racist narrative and is not in line with modern scholarship or the values of the University of Washington or UW Libraries. Critical review of such depictions is required, and UW Libraries is currently working with stakeholders across the University to provide more context and commentary specific to these materials with a plan for more permanent and formal acknowledgement in this space and in our online records.

The caption in the libraries’ virtual database includes this statement, along with:

The Smith Room historical wall murals represent the history and exploration of the Northwest and were painted in 1934 by artists Paul M. Gustin and John T. Jacobsen. They include maps with topographical details, historical figures and flowers indigenous to the Pacific Northwest.

Smith Room Mural #2: A Chart of the Coast of N.W. America showing the Ships and Tracks of Capt. Geo. Vancouver and Various Traders and Navigators 1774-1792

These disclaimers are not enough, especially given that the university has been challenged about these murals for at least nine years, when Chadwick Allen—Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Professor in the Department of English and Adjunct Professor in American Indian Studies—reached out to the University Libraries to express his opposition to the murals. After his efforts were ignored for years, Levesque, Calf Robe, and Baldwin knew they needed to make a change.

Despite what most may assume, the students are not calling for the murals to be removed. They instead propose a much more innovative idea—covering the murals with glass panels, and inviting Indigenous artists from the surrounding area to paint over these negative histories. By doing this the original artists work is not destroyed, and the room would be able to display the problematic mindsets of the university’s past, while showing the continued presence of the peoples the original murals content attempts to erase.

Smith Room Mural #3: Washington Territory as Set Apart From Oregon Territory 1853 with the First Trading Posts and Early Settlements

The students have brainstormed the idea of calling for the university to fully decolonize the room by returning it to Indigenous peoples and giving its ownership to the American Indian Studies department or Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. These organizations intend to use the room as a space to host Native-empowering literature, and serve as a gathering space for Native students, faculty, and communities. Currently neither the AIS department nor CAIIS has a physical building or space, so an area like that being envisioned would be enormously impactful.

While these students and Professor Bissett Perea have been doing amazing work in their efforts, the university needs more student pressure to make this change happen. Complaints about the murals’ content have been present for years yet has only amounted to a small acknowledgement placard. Support the work of this Knowledge Family by contacting Simon Neame, Dean of University Libraries, and giving your support to these efforts.

You may contact his office at (206) 543-1760 or by writing to the following address:

482 Allen Library

Box 352900

Seattle WA 98195

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