John White Alexander’s The Crowning of Labor

“The Crowning of Labor is unfinished. Muralist John White Alexander died before completing his three-story, 4,000-square-foot tribute to the working people of Pittsburgh. The third-floor frieze, entitled The March of Progress, depicts a procession of laborers striving toward enlightenment, but the panels representing the fruits of their efforts remain blank. In celebration of the Museums’ centennial in 1995, industrial grime that obscured the murals for decades was removed. Revealed was a portrait of Pittsburgh that, while proud and historic, excludes the identities and contributions of many. The people, like the empty canvases they parade toward, are starkly and uniformly white. What I love about this incomplete work is that it is up to us to fill in the blanks. In the empty panels, we can envision truer ideals of community. I see only hopeful promises waiting to be fulfilled.”