Kenneth Adams was born in Topeka, Kansas, August 6, 1897. He studied art in Chicago and New York City before moving to Taos in 1924 where he soon joined the Taos Society of Artists.

In 1937, Adams was offered a position as Artist in Residence at UNM. His assignment was to paint a series of murals in the then new Library (now Zimmerman) and to teach painting in the Department of Fine Arts. The appointment was for two years and was funded through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

The original proposal for the murals was made by President James Fulton Zimmerman who described them in the grant application as:

1. The Indian, showing his work as the artist;
2. The Spanish, giving a general idea of their contributions to the civilization I this area in the fields of agriculture and architecture;
3. The Anglo, with scientific contributions; and
4. The union of all three in the life of the Southwest.

An article in the February 8, 1939, student newspaper, The Lobo, stated:

“Murals for the new library will be painted by Kenneth Adams. They have to fit into the architectural structure of the building and will be purely architectural decoration. Mr. Adams’ theme is to get away from the printed word by the use of New Mexican materials. He will present the three racial groups, Indian, Spanish-American, and Anglo, and show the intermingling of their cultures.

The Indian mural pictures a teepee, which represents the nomadic people. An Apache man and sheep shows the means of the Apache regeneration. On the other side are an Apache woman and a Navajo woman. The Navajo woman has silversmith trimmings around her neck and she is working a loom. This shows the culture of the Navajo. A Taos man represents the Pueblo Pottery. The Indian is the artist of New Mexico.

The Spanish-American mural features a woman plastering a house of Spanish architectural style, which has evolved from the simple, primitive Indian habitation. The window of the house frames a distant church, which portrays colonial architecture. The cultivated fields, with the plowed ground and plowman, illustrate agricultural achievement.

The central idea of the Anglo mural is science. It features medicine with a doctor holding a baby, symbolic of a better generation, in the center of the mural. Working at the sides of the doctor are two research figures and the design on the sides of the center window show the sun and earth on one side and the moon and stars on the other.

The fourth mural represents the dawn of a new day, all the contributions combining for better living. Three figures, symbolic of their races are on the same plane, reflecting the spirit of democracy in representing the culture of the three races as socially equal. Behind them is a symbolized landscape of natural resources, both material and aesthetical. Mountain, mesa, desert, yucca, sage, and cactus plants are on the top. Under them runs a stream of water. Beneath the water is an Indian pottery design showing the cultivation of the plowed ground. On the sides are pictured forests, lakes, and reservoirs.”

The murals were painted on canvas with oil based paint. To mount them they were “pressed flat against the wall and then rolled down tight”, according to the Lobo article.

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