The monumental mural cycle The Epic of American Civilization was painted by Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco between 1932 and 1934 in Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth College. This national historic landmark is considered one of the finest examples of mural painting in this country by one of the greatest twentieth-century practitioners of public art.
In addition to the mural, Dartmouth owns more than two hundred preparatory drawings and historical photographs, which due to their fragility, are not on public view except when they are shown in special exhibitions at the college's Hood Museum of Art.
Dartmouth Digital Orozco invites you to explore this wealth of material in conjunction with Orozco's finished mural. This interactive journey reveals Orozco’s creative process, methods, and the evolution of this great work. To learn more about how to explore this site, visit the help page.
Dartmouth Digital Orozco was produced by the Hood Museum of Art in collaboration with the Neukom Institute for Computational Science. Funding was generously provided by the Class of 1960, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Neukom Institute for Computational Science.
Design development was led by James M. Hughes, in collaboration with T. Barton Thurber, Katherine Hart, and Dan Rockmore, and with ongoing development by Bennet Vance and Sarah Powers. Further assistance was provided by Mary Coffey, Karysa Norris, Sara Trautz, Paul Roberts, and Daniel Whitcomb, as well as the staff of Dartmouth College Library. We also thank the Manton Foundation for their perpetual support of the preservation and interpretation of the Orozco mural. All photography is by Jeffrey Nintzel unless otherwise noted.