An Obstetric View of Orozco

When Orozco first painted his famous murals in Baker Library, the reception was decidedly mixed in the national press. Some loved the murals (most notably Lewis Mumford in the New Republic), some marveled that a bastion of capitalism would commission a communist to decorate its library, and some just didn't quite know what to make of the murals. Modern Medicine, though, saw it all as a joke, and their use of the murals was so campy (and, well, dumb), we just had to share it.

They illustrated the section of their May 1934 issue devoted to the latest advances in Gynecology & Obstetrics with Panel 15, "The Gods of the Modern World." They renamed it "Childbirth of Ideas" and gave it the following caption:

The skeleton in labor, bedded on books & giving birth to another scholar, born with a mortar-board on his head (rather than a gold spoon in his mouth) is the sardonic obstetric conception of 51-year-old modern, "unmannered" Mexican muralist, José Clemente Orozco. Grim accoucheurs, supervising the perpetuation of their fleshless species, are pictured pundits of the chaotic modern world.

They must have thought themselves so clever--you can just see those old doctors chortling away.

As part of New Student Orientation, Saturday, September 8th, from 10:15-1:00, Rauner Library will be part of the Shared Academic Experience where students will visit the murals with Professor Mary Coffey and then come over to Rauner Library to see archival films, Orozco's original sketches from the Hood Museum, and examples of how the murals were received by Dartmouth students and alumni, as well as by fuddy-duddy OB-GYNs in the 1930s.

You can find a series of newspaper and magazine articles on the murals by asking for DL-34, Box 8865 and Box 6122.