Orozco’s Epic Murals, the Art of Flowers, and Cookbooks Through the Ages, All at Dartmouth

Earlier this week, in Hanover, N.H., I went to Dartmouth College’s first-class Hood Museum of Art, which is rich in antiquities, European and American painting, and indigenous art from Australia to Maine. Dartmouth’s library is no art slouch, either. Its murals by José Clemente Orozco from the early 1930s are extraordinary, an art lover’s dream, though unheralded. They’re among my secret pleasures. At the rare-books library, I also saw an exhibition on historic cookbooks, for those of us who like good food so much that we enjoy thinking about its evolution through the centuries. Nerds and jocks, young and old, eggheads and Joe Sixpack all need three meals a day.

The Orozco murals — called The Epic of American Civilization — cover the walls of the vast reading room in the basement of Dartmouth’s Baker-Berry Library, its main library building. Like the Hood, the reading room is open to the public and free of charge. To Dartmouth’s great credit, visitors simply walk in the building and head to the reading room, no stop-and-frisk required.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Earlier this week, in Hanover, N.H., I went to Dartmouth College’s first-class Hood Museum of Art, which is rich in antiquities, European and American painting, and indigenous art from Australia to Maine. Dartmouth’s library is no art slouch, either. Its murals by José Clemente Orozco from the early 1930s are extraordinary, an art lover’s dream, though unheralded. They’re among my secret pleasures. At the rare-books library, I also saw an exhibition on historic cookbooks, for those of us who like good food so much that we enjoy thinking about its evolution through the centuries. Nerds and jocks, young and old, eggheads and Joe Sixpack all need three meals a day.

The Orozco murals — called The Epic of American Civilization — cover the walls of the vast reading room in the basement of Dartmouth’s Baker-Berry Library, its main library building. Like the Hood, the reading room is open to the public and free of charge. To Dartmouth’s great credit, visitors simply walk in the building and head to the reading room, no stop-and-frisk required.