Summer 2013 - Oregon State Library: State Employee Information ...

STORIES
CARVED
IN CEDAR
Six Depression-era
murals, hanging in Knight
Library since 1937, depict
the grandeur of Oregon’s
landscape, the tenacious
spirit of its people, and
a dark underside rarely
seen in the governmentsponsored
art of the day.
l
By Kenneth O’Connell ’66, MFA ’72
Photos by Steve Smith
Artist Art Clough describes how Oregon
senator Frederick Steiwer ’06, while vacationing
at Odell Lake in 1937, was “appalled to
note the countless young men train-tramping.”
Steiwer’s concern contributed to the creation of
the Depression-era CCC work program. In this
vignette from the Knight Library panels, Clough
depicts three men trying to jump a freight train.
The figure on the right runs to catch the train,
while a second figure has tripped and fallen to
the ground in front of him. The third person, on
the left, has succeeded in grabbing a rung to
hoist himself onto the train, but we see a boot
stomping on his right hand from above, as
someone tries to break his grip. The numbers
“122530” in the upper right may refer to the
number of the train, or a date: Christmas Day,
1930. Clough interviewed many workers in the
CCC camps; their stories likely informed the
images we see in these panels.
THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 33