Proof print for Love Through the Ages program cover

Edgar Miller
1935
Offset lithograph print
L 36, W 46 cm

Having finished renovations of the dining room and completed the full mural of Love Through the Ages in the space sometime in 1934, the Tavern Club decided to hold an official unveiling party in the summer of 1935. Edgar Miller was asked to design the program for the party, and so with characteristic excess, he created an entire illustrated guide to his mural to be printed and handed out to all guests. Like a cartoon, this strip flows from the top left all the way down to the bottom right corner, and depicts each major scene of the original Love Through the Ages mural.

This print proof is one of two cartoons depicting the entire mural in the Gallery, with this particular print construing in more muted tones than the final version of the program design (as seen below). The final program also came with a written guide letting viewers in on the jokes. Some elements of Miller's historical narrative were not outrightly funny, however, such as his depictions of the struggles between colonizers and indigenous peoples, and a depiction of a slave being traded in the antebellum US South. Miller, a keen student of history, had a darker view of humanity, and tended to believe that as long as humans continued to turn away from nature, then they would be in a constant state of covetous desire, and eventual war.

At its heart, this was the subtle message of Love Through the Ages, and it is no wonder as an artist with his talents, Miller loved returning to this concept and exploring ways to make the viewer look at history with a satirical eye while couching his images in easy-to-digest caricature. Miller's inspiration for these narrative strips came from many of these types of pictograms and graffiti from various eras throughout history.