The plaques above explain the Thomas Hart Benton murals shown in the five photos below.

The mural panels in the two photos below are in a separate lecture hall on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington.

By happenstance and good fortune, two mural panels were undergoing conservation during the blogger's visit, as the poster below announces.

Thomas Hart Benton painted himself into the panel below, one of those being conserved.

That's THB overlapping the NO HELP WANTED sign in the detail below.

Below, conservator Margaret Contompasis works on the second mural panel undergoing conservation.

Ms. Contompasis explained that Thomas Hart Benton painted the 230 X 12 foot tempera murals in two and a half months. He had spent the previous three and a half months traveling the state of Indiana doing historical research and interviewing citizens.

The blogger is deeply, deeply impressed by all this.