From the beginning of campus planning the aesthetics of campus design was a priority of the early college presidents. The preservation of the openness of the central campus was promoted by those presidents, namely Adonijah Welch (1869-1883), Seaman Knapp (1883-1884) and William Beardshear (1891-1902) but for the first sixty-plus years the emphasis was on landscape and architecture. One of the first sculptures on campus were bas- relief panels on the front (East) entrance to the library in 1925 by the sculptor Nellie Vern Walker.[1] That changed in 1929 with a new emphasis on visual arts by President Raymond Hughes (1927-1936).
Hughes established the first Campus Art Committee and identified the Library and Dairy Industries Building as sites for public art. In 1933 he took advantage of the federal Public Works of Arts Project (PWAP) and hired Christian Petersen to sculpt the History of Dairying.
In 1934, President Hughes wrote to the College staff an address called “The Appeal of the Beautiful.” He wrote, “Iowa State College may not aspire to a department of Fine Arts. That work is being ably developed at the University (of Iowa), where it belongs. However, it is quite as important that our students have some understanding and appreciation of the beautiful as that they use correct English. It is not only proper but highly desirable that we do all we can to develop the appreciation of the beautiful on the campus. Many small beginnings have been made. If each year, a considerable number of our staff keeps this matter prominently in mind and pushes forward within our proper limitations, much can be done.
I hope one of these days some of our alumni will give us a substantial amount to endow the work of the beautification of buildings and campus. Anything between $5,000 and $50,000 would be a most valued gift. We must continue to obtain colored prints and paintings for our buildings. We must continue to have Grant Wood’s murals in the library completed. We must complete and perfect our quarter course on the Appreciation of Art, and then make it a required course. We must perfect the landscaping of the campus and gradually make it beautiful in detail and really worthy of the love the students feel for it. We must build fountains and more gardens and plant more trees and shrubs. Let us continue from year to year to add something to the beauty of the environment of the students at Iowa State College.”
My family, pictured above, moved to Ames in 1946 so my father, Louis, could complete his master’s and PhD in Agronomy. He accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Agronomy (1947–1950) and was promoted to Professor in Charge of Farm Operation and Professor of Agronomy at Iowa State University (1950–1958). He also served as Associate Dean for Academic Programs (1958–1983). Our family, at that time, was comprised of my father, mother, Margaret, my brother, Louis Jr. and my three sisters, Margaret Ann, Glenda, and Carolyn. I was born in 1952. In 1953 we moved to a home on Lynn Avenue just two blocks south of campus. Growing up I frequently accompanied my father to his office and other locations around Iowa State. The campus became almost an extension to my neighborhood. I encountered Christian Petersen’s works of art on campus many times as a kid and then as a student at Iowa State. His work became a character defining element in my campus experience and provides a sense of place in my life.
-Jerome Thompson, 2023
Guest Curator
Retired State Curator, State Historical Society of Iowa
[1] Nellie Vern Walker (1874-1973) was born in Red Oak, Iowa and moved with her family to Moulton, Iowa. Her father was a gravestone carver, and she did her first limestone sculpture of Abraham Lincoln which was exhibited at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. Her notable sculptures include the ones at the Parks Library at Iowa State University, the Women’s Suffrage Memorial at the Iowa State Capitol, and a statue of James R. Harlan that was displayed in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol until 2014 when it was replaced by a sculpture of Norman Borlaug. The Harlan statue was relocated to his hometown of Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
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