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More Smithsonian Searches     Who else has...     Houser, Lowell,     Chamberlain, Glenn,     McBroom, Leland A.,     Tinsley, McBroom, and Higgins,     Ethnic -- Indian     Figure group     Allegory -- Element     Allegory -- Element     Allegory -- Element     Allegory -- Other     Portrait male -- Winkler, Karl     Mural     Relief     Outdoor Sculpture -- Iowa -- Des Moines     Sculpture

(Glass Murals), (sculpture). Artist:  Houser, Lowell, 1902-1971, sculptor. Chamberlain, Glenn, 1914-2001, sculptor. McBroom, Leland A., architect. Tinsley, McBroom, and Higgins, architectural firm. Title:  (Glass Murals), (sculpture). Dates:  Sept. 1938-April 1939. Medium:  Pyrex glass. Dimensions:  Each panel: approx. H. 12 ft. Description:  Three 12 foot high panels portraying American Indian gods of nature, and human figures applying the gifts of nature to modern technology. Right-hand panel: Bust of water god holds wheel in left hand from which begins a waterfall that runs through figure's right hand down to four male figures representing fishing and navigation, man's dependence on water, and the harnessing of it. Center panel: Male bust of "Sky" stands behind bust of "Mother Earth." Below them are four male figures representing agriculture, mining, petroleum refining, and forestry. Left-hand panel: Bust of fire god stands above column of fire with four male figures, two on either side. The figures show a man warming himself before a fire, a blacksmith at his forge, a man with a diesel engine, and a man vulcanizing the rubber on a tire. Subject:  Ethnic -- Indian Figure group Allegory -- Element -- Earth Allegory -- Element -- Fire Allegory -- Element -- Water Allegory -- Other -- Civilization Portrait male -- Winkler, Karl Object Type:  Mural Relief Outdoor Sculpture -- Iowa -- Des Moines Sculpture Owner:  Principal Financial Group Corporate Square, 711 High Street, South Main Entrance, Des Moines, Iowa 50307 Provenance:  Formerly located Bankers Life, 711 High Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50307 Remarks:  Estimated total cost in 1939, $10,000. Leland A. McBroom, of the Des Moines firm of Tinsely, McBroom and Higgins, oversaw the design and construction of the new home office of Bankers Life Company (since renamed The Principal Financial Group) from 1938-1940. Houser was selected to do the three entrance murals; Chamberlain two octagonal family groupings and a limestone auditorium relief. Plains Indian motifs were researched and architect student Karl Winkler posed as a model for the figures in the mural design. IAS files contain copy of Mexiner article in The Palimpsest, vol. 73, no. 1, Spring 1992, which gives detailed history of the piece and the subject content of the work. References:  Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985. Meixner, Mary L., "Lowell Houser's Poetic Glass Mural in Des Moines," in The Palimpsest, Vol. 73, no. 1, Spring 1992. Wall, Joseph Frazier, "Policies and People: The First Hundred Years of the Bankers Life," New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1979. Note:  The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide. Repository:  Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012 Control Number:  IAS 75004843   Copy/Holding information Smithsonian AmericanArt Museum Control Number   Inventory of American Sculpture 75004843 Add Copy to MyList Format: HTMLPlain textDelimited Subject:   Email to:

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