CCSF
Phelan Campus
Hall of Science
The Theory of Science is the title of two murals at the west entrance stairs of the Science Hall. The murals show students engaged in various branches of scientific research such as viewing bacteria through a microscope, conducting field research, and excavating dinosaur remains.
These were painted in 1941 as part of the New Deals’ Federal Art Project.
A restoration was completed in 2002 by CCSF faculty, staff, students, and an independent conservator, bringing these images close to their original state.
Frederick E. Olmsted Jr. was born in San Francisco in 1911. He died in Falmouth, Massachusetts in 1990.
Olmsted Jr. studied science at Stanford University and was a student of Ralph Stackpole’s at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) (now called the San Francisco Art Institute or SFAI).
Olmsted Jr. also worked in the WPA, assisting John Langley Howard and George Albert Harris in their Coit Tower murals in San Francisco, and creating his own mural on a three-foot panel called “Power” above the main entrance.
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Olmsted is also responsible for two statues that sit outside of the Hall of Science that he carved during the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition as part of the Arts in Action Exhibit.