This black and white photograph shows the preliminary sketches by Regionalist artist John Steuart Curry, (1897-1946), for the rotunda at the statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. The sketches are a reflection of the oil industry and the cattle drives and were to be commissioned into murals for the second chapter in the state's history. However, the proposals never became a reality because of the controversy surrounding Curry's earlier projects of "Tragic Prelude" and the "Kansas Pastoral" which illustrated the first and third chapters in the state's history on the second-floor of the capitol.