Story and Truth in Edwin Blashfield's The Evolution of Civilization

In 1894, construction neared completion on The Thomas Jefferson Building, the oldest of the three buildings which comprise the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.. With the exterior well in hand, the architects turned their attention to the interior, commissioning extensive murals by well-known artists. The commissioners of these murals deliberately set out to “personify the ideals of the [American] people” through the medium of government-sponsored art, and provide a relatively young nation with a story about themselves -- a visual “literature” which would connect them to the distant past.1 Among the most famous of these murals is Edwin Blashfield’s The Evolution of Civilization which occupies the massive dome of the Main Reading Room; twelve cultures are represented in the circle, each credited with a unique contribution to Western civilization.2 In one case, ancient Egypt is depicted as having contributed “written records” to civilization, represented by a figure wearing a characteristically Egyptian headdress.3 However, a variety of research, some of which actually occurred in the late nineteenth century, calls this particular choice into question; ancient cuneiform records from Mesopotamia date back to 5000 B.C.E.,4 while Egyptian hieroglyphics appeared around 3400 B.C.E..5 This suggests that Mesopotamia should share with Egypt the honor of having contributed written records to Western civilization, if not displace it.

Nineteenth century British explorer Henry Rawlinson was among the first archeologists to draw attention to the importance of cuneiform writing. Arguably, his most valuable discovery was the monument at Bisitun in present-day Iran; Bitisun is a massive memorial to Darius, famed king of ancient Persia. Accor...

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... to remind a young nation that they were not alone. In the context of the nineteenth century American story, what mattered was developing a connection to the past. Art such as the murals in the Thomas Jefferson Building tells a version of the truth, and should be accepted and interpreted as such. It is doubtful that anyone is basing a historical curriculum on The Evolution of Civilization; surely, the fact that students learn both the importance of cuneiform and hieroglyphics in modern-day schools is after all, what truly matters. It is also worth remembering that the truly valuable act of writers or artists in any period of history is that they bothered to paint or write at all. No matter how imperfect, humanity tells a story with its cuneiform alphabets, its hieroglyphics and its murals; the fact that we have a story to tell about ourselves is worth celebrating.