This black and white photograph shows preliminary sketches by Regionalist artist John Steuart Curry, (1897-1946), for the rotunda at the statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. The sketches were a reflection of the "historic struggle of man with nature" 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, "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.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
John Steuart Curry's preliminary sketches for the Kansas Capitol in Topeka, Kansas