UNH Today

Artist George Loyd’s mural, “Agriculture,” is one of two Depression-era Works Projects Administration wall paintings undergoing restoration as part of the ongoing Hamilton Smith Hall renovation project. The 8-by-40-foot mural was painted in 1939 for what was the then-UNH library’s reserve room in its newly constructed west wing. Across the intervening 77 years, however, the egg tempera paint has faded and the gesso wall beneath it has borne the brunt of time, plumbing leaks and flooding. Both “Agriculture” and a companion mural, “Industry,” painted by Arthur Eisner in Ham Smith’s east wing, are being patched and repainted, and will highlight new classroom space when the renovation project is completed in summer 2017.

Originally published in UNH Magazine Spring 2016 Issue