Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 95, number 1, autumn 2011

              PRESERVING
m
e often say at the Wisconsin Historical Society that
we are the keepers of Wisconsin's '"big picture' history." A recent collaborative preservation and collecting project with the Kohler Foundation backs up
this claim—quite literally. The Society is now home to what
are perhaps the largest murals ever painted in Wisconsin.
The planners of the 1948 Wisconsin Centennial Exposition
made grand plans for a "once-in-a-lifetime" celebration of the
growth and development of the Badger State. In particular,
the Agricultural Committee envisioned an ambitious presentation covering one hundred years of agricultural progress for
the three-week Exposition, more commonly known as the State
Fair. The committee commissioned a group of Wisconsin
artists to create two massive mural scenes to anchor a 21,000
square foot display entitled From Cradle to Combine.
The committee chose University of Wisconsin-Madison art
instructor and John Stuart Curry protege Roger Hodgell to lead
the effort. He worked with the committee members and Wisconsin artists such as Byron Jorns to craft a vision for the
murals. Hodgell spent considerable time traveling the countryside sketching the state's diverse natural and agricultural land
scapes. He then produced a series of study sketches outlining
the composition. The vision was large, indeed. The mural
needed to span nearly 400 linear feet of display space and measure 12 feet in height. In order to accomplish this, the scene was
broken down into fourteen smaller segments. At this scale, each
segment measured a whopping 28 feet in length.
Hodgell and seven other artists spent long hours prepping
the canvas and applying the egg-based tempera paint. Eight
mural segments formed a continuous scene depicting the natural and newly developing agricultural landscapes of Wisconsin in 1848. Six mural segments formed a second continuous
scene of a modern 1948 Wisconsin farm. Preparators mounted
the scenes back to back on a center wall that divided the exhibition hall into an early settlement period and a contemporary
scene. Shortly thereafter, fair workers installed the exhibition's
equipment, animals, and buildings, including a house, a barn,
and even a silo.
An awe-inspiring 5,000 square feet of canvas awash in soft,
earthy tones greeted visitors. In front of the murals, costumed
interpreters demonstrated early pioneer farming practices on
the 1848 side of the exhibit, and modern buildings and