Exhibits
The "lost" murals of Dorothy Morlan
Over 20 years ago, members of the Irvington Historical Society visited the soon-to-be demolished Indianapolis City Hospital, then called Wishard. During the tour, they were given a series of wet rolled-up canvases which were lying on the floor waiting to be discarded.
These were once the murals painted by Irvington Artist Dorothy Morlan in the Women’s Medical Ward and Sunroom. The Irvington Historical Society stored these canvas rolls until 2019, when grants from the Indiana Historical Society, the Owings Family Foundation and funding from the Irvington Community Council, allowed the Society to begin restoring its Dorothy Morlan collection and exploring if these murals could be saved.
Art conservator Natalia Nikolayev carefully unrolled and weighted each tight roll to find six canvas strips forming two murals.
The plan is to clean and mount each piece on a backer board which will allow us to rehang these “lost” murals.
The cost of this process is estimated to be $12,000.