{"id":590,"date":"2022-08-16T18:50:52","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T18:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wbbm.digitalprojects.brynmawr.edu\/dev\/?page_id=590"},"modified":"2022-09-07T11:29:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T15:29:25","slug":"decoration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wbbm.digitalprojects.brynmawr.edu\/why-build\/exhibit\/education\/decoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoration and Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While the High Victorian Gothic<\/a><\/strong> form and ornament of Taylor Hall\u2019s exterior embodied the Anglo-Saxonist<\/a><\/strong> goals expressed in the curriculum, the interior decorations tied academic life firmly to Classical culture. By the late 1880s, in an implicit rejection of Quaker guardedness<\/strong>, the classrooms, library, and hallways were richly decorated with photographs and plaster cast reproductions of Greek, Roman, and European art and architecture. These decorations visually immersed students in the Greco-Roman tradition. Classical imagery was intended to cultivate in students a sense of superiority based in an education that celebrated white European history, culture, and exceptionalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A
Unknown photographer\u200b
Library in Taylor Hall<\/em>, 1893\u202f \u200b\u200b
Facsimile of photograph \u202f \u200b\u200b
Bryn Mawr College Archives, PAB_Taylor_009\u202f <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"A
“Beautiful Head” of Pergamon, <\/em>19th\u2013early 20th century cast of Greek original of the mid-2nd century BCE\u200b
Plaster\u200b
14 23\/32 x 6 1\/2 in. (37.4 x 16.5 cm)\u200b
Bequest of M. Carey Thomas, President of Bryn Mawr College, 1894-1922\u200b
Bryn Mawr College Special Collections, 2014.4.14\u200b
\u200b<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Similar plaster casts of famous Greco-Roman sculptures were displayed throughout Taylor Hall. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Return to: From Guarded to Worldly Education<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Continue to: “Taylor-Made” Students<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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