The Campus Reporter, 1898
In the mid-1950s, Alison Mason Kingsbury took on an ambitious mural project for Cornell University's Gannett Health Clinic. The artist took as her subject the clinic's benefactor Frank Gannett, a newspaper mogul and former student reporter for the Cornell Daily Sun. It was a carefully assembled mural composed of quintessential scenes from the Cornell of Gannett's years. In an effort to address the strange spacial concerns of the small lobby with an expansive view of Lake Cayuga, the artist turned to a linear perspective system in which foreground and background figures are drawn to the same scale, thus flattening any sense of depth within the composition.
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Alison Mason Kingsbury. The Campus Reporter, 1898. [1958] [zoom] The Campus Reporter, 1898 as photographed in the early 2000s. From the collection of Alison and Richard Jolly |
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Alison Mason Kingsbury. The Campus Reporter, 1898. [1958] [zoom] A detail of Cornellians studying. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections |
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Alison Mason Kingsbury. The Campus Reporter, 1898. [1958] [zoom] A detail of Cornell's turn-of-the-century graduation ceremony. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections |
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Alison Mason Kingsbury. The Campus Reporter, 1898. [1958] [zoom] Pamplet outlining the background and the making of the mural. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections |