Orozco murals at Dartmouth named national landmark

HANOVER, N.H. (AP) – Murals by Jose Clemente Orozco at Dartmouth College have been designated as a new national historic landmark, along with a dozen other sites around the country, the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Parks Service announced Monday.

The Epic of American Civilization murals painted between 1932 and 1934 are the most important work in the United States by Orozco, one of Mexico’s foremost mural artists of the early 20th century, the Parks Service said.

The murals, which were controversial in their day, were conceived by Orozco as a representation of a North American continent characterized by the duality of indigenous and European historical experiences, the Parks Service said. The 24 panels cover about 3,200 square feet and depict the history of the Americas from the migration of the Aztecs into central Mexico to the development of modern industrialized society, according to Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art.

The other 12 new national historical landmarks include an Alabama bridge that was the site of “Bloody Sunday” during the civil rights movement and the home of author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe in Hartford, Conn.

“These national historic landmark designations span more than two centuries of our country’s history, from 17th century architecture to a Civil War battlefield to a 19th century-Kentucky whiskey distillery that continued to operate through the Prohibition era,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said.

National historic landmarks are nationally significant historic places that possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States, the Parks Service said.

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