Friends of the Zeiss
Telephone: 412-561-7876
Electronic Mail: < friendsofthezeiss@planetarium.cc >
Internet Web Site: < http://www.friendsofthezeiss.org
>
2005 May 27
M. Elaine Wagner
Science Reference, Biology and General Science
Selector
Woodruff Library,
Dear Elaine:
Great news !
As you can see
from the enclosed items, we have found the answers to most of your questions.
David
Vater, a local
architect who is currently researching the history of all of
According to the
article, she was 22 at the time the mural was painted in 1944. However, the web
site on Eva says she was born in 1920; hence, she would really have been 23 or 24
in 1944. With her death coming in 1968, at age 48, this is much too young. Do
you know the cause of her death?
Interestingly, we
found the same problem in the news article, regarding the spelling of her surname,
which you had also mentioned. In the article her surname is spelled Mirabal,
while it is spelled Mirabel in the caption to the photograph!
So, it turns out
that the World War II mural, with the airplanes and parachutists, was the one
that Eva painted. According to the article, this was painted for an Army Air
Force Show at Buhl Planetarium, as a watercolor directly on the wall.
Since the Air
Show mural was a watercolor [I doubt we will ever find a color photo of it], it
must have been washed-off sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s. By the late
1960s, two satellite “murals” [actually “cut-outs” of painted satellites
mounted on the east wall] had replaced Eva’s mural. Today, that section of the
east wall is completely gone [including the astronomical inscription from the
Bible which was on the exterior of the east wall], as the Children’s Museum
insisted on replacing it with a huge window! Eric Canali and I remember seeing
a black-and-white photo of this mural; however, it may have been in newspaper
microfilm.
Another
colleague, Virginia Peden, did send me the telephone number of Nat Youngblood,
the artist who painted the very large mural on the Buhl Planetarium south wall
in the 1960s, who now lives in the
M. Elaine Wagner 2005 May 27 Page 2 of 2
You mentioned
that Nat Youngblood was in
I hope this news
article helps your research.
Sincerely yours,
Glenn A. Walsh
Project Director
gaw
Enclosures 2
Copy: David Vater
Virginia Peden