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Photograph shows left half of the mural on the east wall. According to the inscription the figures are (left to right): "The Merchant, with his Flemish beaver hat and forked beard; the Friar; the Monk; the Franklin; the Wife of Bath; the Parson and his brother the Ploughman, riding side by side"
North Reading Room, east wall. Detail of mural by Ezra Winter illustrating the characters in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Pic of the Week: Canterbury Tales

Posted by: Ellen Terrell

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In this week’s edition of Pic of the Week, I wanted to bring attention to the murals by Ezra Winter that most visitors no longer see in the north reading room space now used for offices.  These murals have some really wonderful colors and are dedicated to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

This picture is a detail that includes the Merchant, the Friar, the Monk, the Franklin, the Wife of Bath, the Parson, and the Ploughman.

Comments (4)

  1. gilagirl says:

    I had a wallpaper mural in the 1960’s that copied this. Worked all summer to buy the wallpaper

  2. Val Philips says:

    My sister, Diane Mason Hess (1934-1976) painted one very similar in 1955 on the wall going into the library at her Junior College, LPO, now a high school in LaSalle, Illinois. The school has maintained the mural, 4.5’x 75’, over the years and it can still be seen today.

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