Madison Square Station USPO west mural 1

Kindred McLeary (December 3, 1901,

Weimar, Texas Weimar ( or, by many non-locals, ) is a city in Colorado County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,076 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Texas-German belt region and was founded and named by German emigrants after the city of Weimar ...

– May 29, 1949) was an American architect, artist and educator.

Education

Kindred McLeary studied architecture at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and earned his degree in 1927. While teaching at the University of Texas the following year, McLeary entered one of his paintings, ''Cotton'', in a national art exhibit at the Witte Memorial Museum in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

. The painting portrayed an African-American woman reclining in a field of cotton with several men standing around her, one of them strumming a guitar. Some artists and ministers attacked the picture as obscene, but the art curator of the museum defended it and kept it hanging throughout the exhibit, despite the controversy.

Career

McLeary began teaching architecture at

Carnegie Tech Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

in the autumn of 1928. McLeary was also a noted muralist. His best-known mural, ''Defense of Human Freedoms'' (1942), sometimes referred to as ''America the Mighty'', dominates the 21st Street, N.W. lobby of the Harry S. Truman Building of the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

. When the mural was created in 1941–42, the building was planned for the use of the U.S. War Department, which moved into the newly built

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

in 1947, leaving the War Department structure with the mural to the Department of State. The mural is a depiction of the chaos of war and the enduring efforts of humanity to preserve freedom and civilization. It was covered over with plywood and drapery in 1954 and restored in 2010 for the debut of the

George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the US Army under Pre ...

Conference Center inside the building. McLeary also painted murals in, among other places, his adopted home of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

; at the

Somerset County, Pennsylvania Somerset County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania German: ''Somerset Kaundi'') is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the po ...

library; and as far away as New York City (at the Madison Square Post Office). Several large murals by McLeary from 1935 survive in good shape in the US Post Office-South Norwalk Main, but were hidden from public view in 1986 when that building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. and A mural in the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Pittsburgh, titled ''Modern Justice'' was damaged and lost prior to 1952, after the painted canvas panels fell off the wall in Courthouse No. 2 during a trial.

Death

McLeary taught architecture at

until his untimely death, aged 47, following a fall from the roof of his studio near Confluence, Somerset County, Pennsylvania in May 1949., He was buried in the Weimer Masonic Cemetery in Colorado County, Texas.

Sources

* McMahan, Truman. ''School and Society'', June 18, 1949 *''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', March 28, 1971 *''

'', April 27, 1977

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLeary, Kindred 1901 births 1949 deaths Architects from Texas 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American educators American muralists Artists from Pittsburgh People from Weimar, Texas 20th-century American architects Painters from Texas Painters from Pennsylvania University of Texas alumni University of Texas faculty Carnegie Mellon University faculty Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Pennsylvania Section of Painting and Sculpture artists