WHEAT PASTE MURALS CELEBRATE LOCAL HISTORY, Grinnell, Iowa

Wheat Paste Mural, Grinnell, Iowa. Edith Renfrow and her Three Sisters, 1941. L-R: Evanel, Edith, Alice, Helen .

On a beautiful fall day, September 28, 2024, Grinnell College and the town of Grinnell, Iowa, celebrated the dedication of a new dormitory/community center, Renfrow Hall, named after Edith Renfrow Smith, who grew up in the town of Grinnell and, in 1937, was the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College.

Edith in cap and gown. Grinnell College graduate, 1937.

Posted around town are large wheat paste murals depicting Edith's early life and scenes from that period in the town's history. The murals, created by Iowa artist Isaac Campbell from historic photos, enlarged and printed on rolls of blueprint paper, were fastened to buildings with wheat paste. Volunteers were recruited to cut around the edges of the figures to make them into silhouettes. The murals will last about a year.

Bicyclists travel a rural road near Grinnell, ca 1990. 

Past and present become linked as one views the murals. The ten murals are found throughout the Grinnell community. We enjoyed discovering them as we did a walking tour of the downtown area. 

Gluing the photo to the wall.

We watched as the final photo installation took place on the front of the First Interstate bank building on Broad Street directly across from Renfrow Hall on the day before its dedication. The enormous size of the image required a machine to lift the artist and an assistant to the top of the wall. Working from top to bottom they pasted the paper to the wall, then coated it with more wheat paste to protect it from the weather. The photo depicts Edith and her sisters when they posed in front of family house on First Avenue for a group photo on a trip to Grinnell in 1941. (See first photo for the complete image.)

Edith, two years old. Grinnell Arts Center building.

Other photos of Edith can be found on the Grinnell Arts Center building. Next to the front door she is wearing a cap and gown from her college graduation. Around the corner is a picture of her when she was two, wearing a big bow in her hair. (When Edith was growing up, the building was the town library.)

Anna Craig and her son William Goode, 1915.

Most of the murals are in the historic center of town. Photos were selected to show various aspects of town life during the time Edith was growing up. (After her graduation from Grinnell College she moved to Chicago, where she has lived ever since. But she has always considered Grinnell home.)

The business community is represented with a portrait of Edith’s Aunt, Anna Craig, who operated a ladies beauty shop from the late 1800s to the 1920s.

Spaulding cars were manufactured in Grinnell from 1910 to 1929.

Manufacturing in Grinnell is represented by a picture of a Spaulding car, pasted appropriately on the wall of a contemporary carwash business. 

Grinnell High School student Philip Palmer and friends pose with his sousaphone, 1937.

Music has always been part of a Grinnell High School education. This mural, on the side of historic building on Fourth Avenue, depicts a group of high school musicians.

These are just some of the murals in Grinnell. A map of the location of the ten murals can be found HERE. 

For more about Edith Renfrow Smith's visit to Grinnell for the Renfrow Hall dedication and the celebration of her family and Black history in the community, see my post on October  7, 2024.