Mural by Edward Laning

"There may be still more murals to paint," Laning says, "but this mural for my home-town will always be for me the best of all." This mural located in the lobby of the main bank facility was painted by the famous artist, Edward Laning who was born in Petersburg in 1906. After graduating from the Petersburg High School he attended the University of Chicago for two years, then studied art at the Art Students' League of New York. His mural paintings include six large panels and a ceiling of the Great Hall of the New York Public Library; a series of eight murals for Ellis Island (now removed to the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn); a mural for the City National Bank in Kansas City; the Post Offices in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Rockingham, North Carolina; and numerous hotels from New York to Los Angeles. His easel paintings are included in the collections of the Nelson Gallery of Kansas City and the Whitney Museum and Metropolitan Museum in New York. Laning has been the recipient of Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships. During World War II he was an artist-correspondent for Life Magazine. He has taught painting and drawing in many important art schools and was for twenty-five years instructor at the Art Students' League. He is an Academician of the National Academy of Design, and from 1969 to 1974 was President of the National Society of Mural Painters. Back