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Conservation in Context
The Evander Childs High School Murals Project

James Michael Newell's Evolution of Western Civilization

This section of the website focuses on Newell's Evolution of Western Civilization fresco, the heart and soul of the Conservation in Context project. The eight panels, which depict the growth and development of Western Civilation and are the centerpiece of Evander Childs High School's library, have an important history. In her essay Controversy in Context: A Reassessment of James Michael Newell's Evolution of Western Civilization, art historian Michele Cohen treats the mural as a "case study of the disjuncture between artistic intent and audience perception." Two essays by the artist James Michael Newell express his thoughts concerning the subject matter and execution of the murals. Newell's studies for the Evolution of Western Civilization mural, photographed at the artist's home in the late 1970s by art historian Marlene Park, are here as well, as is Walt Whitman's poem "With Antecedents", which is quoted in the panel and, Newell wrote, "unifies the thought" that inspired his creation. Finally, a selection of black and white photographs from the collection of the Evander Childs High School Library depict the library prior to and upon the completion of the Newell mural.

Contents

Controversy in Context: A Reassessment of James Michael Newell's Evolution of Western Civilization
Michele Cohen

Conservation of the Newell Mural
Alan Farancz

Newell's Statement on the Evolution of Western Civilization Murals (1938)
James Michael Newell

The Evolution of Western Civilization
James Michael Newell

Newell's Studies for Evolution of Western Civilization

"With Antecedents"
Walt Whitman

Photographs, Evander Childs High School Library, 1930s
ECHS Library Archives

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