The Hovey Murals, boarded over since 1983 because of their controversial depiction of Native Americans, will be placed on permanent display next year when their home in Thayer Hall's basement is converted into a new art gallery.
The murals, located in Hovey's Pub, will become part of the College's art collection under control of the Hood Museum, which will develop educational materials describing the art and its history.
Hovey's Pub is scheduled to be relocated to the basement of the new Collis Center.
The administration's decision, announced in late June by Provost John Strohbehn, signals the possible resolution of more than two decades of controversy surrounding the murals.
Painted in the late1930s by Walter B. Humphrey '14, the murals illustrate the words to the song "Eleazar Wheelock," written in 1894 by Richard Hovey, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1885.
They also depict Wheelock, the College's founder, with drunken and naked Native American men and women and the "five hundred gallons of New England rum" mentioned in Hovey's song.
The murals also portray a naked Native American woman attempting to read a book upside down.
The contents of the murals received increased attention and scrutiny as the College recruited and enrolled more Native Americans during the presidency of John Kemeny.
In 1971, a group of Native American students called for the murals to be painted over. Five years later a proposal was presented to cover or remove them . Finally in 1979 the College limited access to the murals.
In 1983 the College covered the murals with removable panels after determinining that removal would seriously damage them. The panels were later taken off each year during Commencement and Reunion and other special events.
Last winter the Student Assembly passed a resolution calling for the display of the murals four times a year for educational purposes and the eventual transfer of the murals to the Hood Museum.
Strohbehn said the Native American Council of students, faculty and administrators recommended to him in a letter that the murals should be permanently uncovered and considered part of the college's art collection.
"I think this is a turning poing for Native Americans at Dartmouth," said Colleen Larimore '85, former director of the Native American Program. "While we still consider the murals to be degrading and offensive, we cannot deny how Native Americans were viewed in the past at Dartmouth and in this country. Rather than fleeing from this past, we must face it and learn from it."
Hood Museum Director Timothy Rub said the plan is an appropriate solution to the problem.
"People who may have found the representation of Native Americans offensive were forced to be in that space, whether for a meeting or social event," he said. "In a museum we can put up an exhibition that may have content that may be offensive, because in a gallery the viewer has the choice whether or not to enter."
Rub said it would cost the College as much as $70,000 to move the murals out of Thayer while it would cost "very little" to convert the room into a gallery.
He said he thought the Assembly resolution and the council letter to Strohbehn were "extremely important as a catalyst for this action."
"There are two important issues here, the question of choice and the question of censorship," Rub said. "This solution addresses both questions in a fair and equitable manner."
