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Famed Iowa artist Grant Wood, most noted for his painting “American Gothic,” left his legacy at Iowa State with murals decorating Parks Library.

The murals are located in the lower lobby and on the walls of the staircase leading to the upper lobby.

According to Parks Library archive information, Wood designed the murals and developed the color scheme, but local artists did the actual painting and research.

The oil-based murals were created under a federal program that provided work for unemployed artists during the Great Depression.

The murals are based on a quotation by Daniel Webster on “The Agriculture of England” during a speech in 1840 in the State House in Boston: “When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.”

The murals portray the divisions of ISU. The murals include: Veterinary Medicine, Farm Corps, Animal Husbandry, Home Economics, Ceramics and Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautical and Civil Engineering.

Mary Atherly, curator of University Museums, said the murals capture an important time in Iowa.

“It is a history of Iowa for the young people of this state that weren’t alive during the ’30s and don’t necessarily know the history of Iowa,” she said.

Atherly said the murals are educational tools for current ISU students. “It is a history on what was going on during that time, with technology and the way people worked,” she said.

The artist took two years to research the areas of study portrayed in the murals.

According to historical information obtained about the murals from Parks Library, Wood paid close attention to detail and had the faculty authenticate the breeds of hogs and horses, kinds of hay and the chemical experiment in progress.

Even the book labels in the Civil Engineering panel were researched right down to their Dewey Decimal numbers.

However, former university professor Gladys Hamilin stated in an article written shortly after the completion of the murals that “such realistic touches as wrinkles in the face and clothing are omitted.”

The way the people were drawn is one of the most interesting things about the mural, Atherly said.

“I think that it is very interesting on how they were put together and how the people of that era are perceived,” she said. “It not only shows us what is going on during that day but how people lived and how they worked.”