The following is an article written by Libby Franck after viewing “Praying Town”, a documentary aired at Historic Village Hall. We think it’s a stellar example of how discussions of local history also lead to discussions of local art and other topics, with collaborations that extend beyond town borders….
Natick’s Murals of the Praying Indians
I went to the debut of the movie Praying Town last month. But at the end I was left with a mystery. During the 1930’s WPA, there were some murals created of Eliot and his flock in town. One of them is in the Natick Post Office. It shows Eliot bidding farewell to his parishioners just before their exile toDeer Island during King Philip’s War.
But there was another mural in the old Victorian library –The Morse Institute. I remember it on a wall near the circulation desk. It disappeared during the 1997 renovation.
I went to the reference desk and asked Gaylene Bordeaux, the archival librarian, “Wasn’t there a mural in the library, a second one, also about the Praying Indians?” “Yes, indeed there was”, was Gaylene’s reply.
“What happened to it?” I asked.
Ms Bordeaux led me to a locked climate controlled room. “It is in here.” She pointed to a rolled up canvas on top of a closet. “The murals were painted by Hollis Holbrook. He did the one in the Post Office and the one for the library.”
“Why isn’t it on display?”, I asked.
“No wall space. Upon occasion it is unrolled for current members of the tribe of Praying Indians with their clan mother CaringHands. Then it is rolled up again and put back up there.”
According to the vertical file on Hollis Holbrook the Post Office Mural was done in 1937 and was recently restored by a special team from Chicagoin 2007. The rolled-up mural was presented to the Morse Institute Library in 1972 -anonymously. The center panel shows John Eliot preaching to the Indians holding the Natick Indian Bible. The left panel shows Eliot and Major Gookin, the Indian Commissioner, arriving and being greeted on the banks of the Charles by the Natick Sachems. The right panel shows the arrival of Governor Endicott and his escorts in Natick in 1662 when they came to view Eliot’s work with the Indians.
Hollis Holbrook was born in Natick in 1909. A 1927 graduate of Natick High, he attended local art schools, worked in advertising, and received a fine arts degree from Yale. He was a professor of art at theUniversity of Florida, painted murals in other states as well as in Mexico. He died in 1984.
A newspaper article in the vertical file folder mentioned his inspiration for the Post Office Mural, a book by Sarah S. Jacobs Nonantum andNatick written in1853. She expressed her hopes that one day there would be a mural in the State House in Boston with John Eliot in the foreground-bidding farewell to his disciples as they were led off to Deer Island. Be of good cheer he is saying.
Well today there is a mural in the state house showing Eliot and his converts painted by Neo Classical artist Henry Oliver Walker in 1903. It is a very idealized scene with sunlight streaming from heaven down on Eliot with the Indians at his feet.
But that was not the scene Holbrook painted. Not the feel good Eliot and the Indians. No, his depicts the most shameful moment when the fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony banished Eliot’s flock to sure death onDeerIsland. The location is the Charles River in Watertown near today’s Arsenal. The Indians, chained together slave-fashion, were brought from Natick by Captain Prescott. They must wait for the river tide to rise to be taken to Deer Island in the Harbor. Local politician Jeremiah Healy posed for Eliot and Postmaster Victor Cassavant posed for Captain Prescott with his gun. This was the vision of Sarah Jacobs – the moment of shame.
I think the 2 murals show the inception of the Natick Praying Indians, taught by Eliot, authorized by the Indian Commissioner and inspected by the Colony’s governor. I think the triptych was painted first. But it took the daring artist Hollis Holbrook to choose a very tragic moment to portray in the Natick Post Office. It is not surprising that later in his life he painted murals of the 70’s scandal of Watergate.
I hope that soon both murals will be on display in Natick once again.
Libby Franck
July 26, 2012