Watermelon-Kid.ComIn addition to the medallion, the Great Hall's other outstanding features are the huge murals seen on the north and south walls. Unlike most murals, these were not painted directly onto the wall but first on canvas in a studio and then attached to the walls. Here, framed by tall fluted columns of native Texas fossil-shellstone, can be seen the whole panorama of Texas history, from the earliest days of Spanish settlement to modern times, i.e. 1936 - the year the building was constructed. These murals were painted by Eugene Savage of New York, a professor of painting at Yale University in Connecticut. Each mural measures 30 feet by 80 feet. They were completed by Savage in just five months with the help of two Texas artists: James Buchanan "Buck" Winn, Jr. and Reveau Bassett. Two art students, Bill Smith and Lonnie Lyon, also assisted.
Each mural, instead of following a chronological order, begins its theme at either side, culminating in the center panel. The mural on the north wall (to the left when facing the medallion) is of the "Texas of History," its scenes climaxing in the violent birth of the Republic of Texas. On the left side are shown early Spanish explorers Cabeza de Vaca and Coronado along with the French explorers LaSalle and Desoto. Next can be seen Spanish missionaries attempting to bring Christianity to the Indian tribes of Texas. High above them are the angels Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience.
Below the angels stands Mexican President and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna dressed in the private's uniform in which he was captured after the Battle of San Jacinto. That event, which took place on April 21, 1836, secured the independence of Texas from Mexico. Santa Anna is shown surrendering to General Sam Houston, who lies with a bullet wound in his leg. Nearby, the scout "Deaf" Smith is seen, cupping his ear with his hand so as to better hear the words spoken between the two men. Below this scene and to the right are portrayed the citizens of Gonzales whose "Come and Take It" taunt started the Texas Revolution in October 1835. A contingent of Mexican soldiers had been sent to take away the cannon the American settlers had earlier been given to defend themselves against the Indians. The Mexican government, rightly so it now seems, was afraid the colonists might use the cannon against its authority. However, by trying to relieve the colonists of their cannon, Mexico triggered the very thing it had hoped to avoid.
n the mural's center is a scene representing the most legendary battle in Texas history, the siege of the Alamo. Shown here, wearing a blue uniform coat, his back to the viewer, stands Colonel William Barret Travis, commandant of the fort. In his right hand he holds the sword with which, according to legend, he drew a line in the dust and challenged the Alamo's men to cross and stay there to perish in the name of liberty. Facing him are a group of men which include Jim Bowie, lying stricken on a cot, James Butler Bonham, shown carrying Bowie's cot (near his feet), and David Crockett, standing tall and erect, his hair slicked down and parted in the middle and wearing not the coonskin cap and buckskins of legend but rather a Congressman's black frock coat and tie. While Crockett had indeed been a U.S. Congressman, it is said that the artist, being a "Yankee" and not so familiar with Texas history, used as a reference a portrait of the legendary backwoodsman painted while he was in Washington representing his Western Tennessee constituents.
The smoke rising above the door of the Alamo chapel represents the funeral pyre of its defenders and the female allegorical figure standing above it, as if rising with the smoke, is symbolic of the Republic of Texas being born from the flames. To this figure's right (viewer's left) stands Stephen F. Austin, the acknowledged "Father of Texas" - so-called for being the first American to settle other Americans in what was once the Mexican province of Texas. Below and to the right of the Alamo are pictured two more famous Texians: James Fannin with his men at the Battle of Concepcion; and Ben Milam, hero of the Battle of San Antonio de Bexar. Both Fannin and Milam died in the Revolution. Fannin and his men were executed by the Mexicans at Goliad. Milam, leading the Texians in battle, was killed in the streets of old Bexar in December 1835.
In the right-hand panels of this mural are scenes depicting earlier attempts to wrest Texas away from Spain by such "filibusters" as James Long and the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition. Also depicted are the "Old Three Hundred," Austin's original colonists, entering Texas.
The theme of the mural on the south wall (right-hand side when facing the medallion) is "The State of Texas." In the center, sitting astride two cornucopia spilling their bounty, sits a female figure symbolizing the state. In her lap are flowers (which many a child has mistaken for "doughnuts"). She holds a mysterious blue orb which some observers have jokingly called her "bowling ball." Below her stands another female figure representing "Education". She is holding aloft the torch of knowledge and learning while 1936-era school-children emerge from darkness into the light. Next to her stands Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar, who is credited with the establishment of public education in Texas.
On the extreme left of the mural are a number of figures from Texas history standing in a row: Anson Jones - last president of the Republic; Jane Long - wife of James Long and "Mother of Texas"; J. Pinckney Henderson - first governor of the State of Texas; Ashbel Smith - President Jones' Secretary of State; Susannah Dickinson - the only adult Anglo survivor of the Alamo; and Rebecca Fisher - admired for her interest in the general welfare of Texas, she helped save the Alamo as a shrine to Texas history. Also depicted, separate from the others, is Senora Alverez, known as the "Angel of Goliad" - for her attempts to bring aid and comfort to Fannin's sick and dying men. Also pictured in this panel is a tribute to the Indians of Texas and three of Texas' Confederate military leaders: Generals Hood and Johnston and Dick Dowling - hero of the Battle of Sabine Pass.
The next panel depicts three allegorical figures representing the South, Columbia (in the center), and the North. These symbolize the reunion of the North and South into one country following the Civil War. Below are a cowboy astride a white horse, his lariat held high in the air, driving a herd of longhorn cattle and a farmer wielding a shovel near a stream and a flock of sheep.
The panels to the right depict scenes of modern-day industries of Texas including shipping, petro-chemicals, cotton growing, oil production and lumber. The three allegorical figures in this part of the mural are a tribute to, and symbolic of, music, literature and science."