Conservation of Wild Life

Henry Varnum Poor focuses on the relationships among humans, animals, and landscapes in his fresco mural Conservation of American Wildlife. Poor wrote about the impetus for this piece: “I want to deal in a poetic, or rather symbolic way, with the whole friendly relationships between men, wild birds and animals, and nature, and do honor to Audubon and Thoreau, whose work makes them in a sense the fathers of conservation.” The mural’s composition includes varied landscapes, from the Florida Everglades to the Pacific Northwest. This juxtaposition, according to Poor, “demands a formal unreality of symbolism.”

An architect, muralist, ceramist, teacher, and author, Poor was born in 1888 in Chapman, Kansas. During his career, Poor created murals for many public buildings, including the U.S. Department of Justice. His daughter Anne completed the plaster work for many of his projects including this one. In addition to murals, Poor illustrated two of his own books, as well as Jack London’s Call of the Wild.