BETHLEHEM, Pa. — During World War II, combat artist and muralist George Gray served as a boatswain aboard the U.S. Coast Guard's Cutter Campbell.
As described by a Coast Guard admiral after Gray died in 2004, the artist was inspired by the day-to-day life at sea with a fondness for the ship's crew dog, a black-and-white terrier mix named Sinbad (Gray's illustrations appear in a book about Sinbad published in 1945).
In 1937, Sinbad was named the warship's official mascot — a year before Gray, then in his late 20s, was commissioned by Gen. J. Leslie Kincaid, president of the American Hotels, to create a series of murals for the Hotel Bethlehem.
Last week, Gray's murals were included in Historic Hotels of America's Top 25 Historic Hotels of America's Most Magnificent Art Collections List.
Hotel Bethlehem is the only hotel that retains its set of murals by Gray, who created 233 murals for hotels across the United States in the 1930s and '40s.
'Extremely patriotic'
Kincaid instructed Gray to create the hotel's murals to reveal significant historical events in the city.
"Kincaid was extremely patriotic," Gray told novelist and Star-Ledger newspaper columnist Mark McGarrity for a piece he wrote in the Newark, New Jersey, newspaper in celebration of Gray's 90th birthday in 1996.
"And considered it important for me to reveal the history of a place in my paintings. You have to understand that big hotels back then were the center of the community. Everything from weddings to clubs, cotillions, and business meetings occurred there."
In Bethlehem's case, Gray murals portray events such as the naming of the city by Count Zinzendorf in 1741, Benjamin Franklin’s arrival in 1755 to advise Lehigh Valley settlers on their defense against the Indians, and the 1778 visit of the father of the American cavalry, Casimir Pulaski.
There's also a mural of Asa Packer, founder of Lehigh University, and an "Iron and Steel" mural that honors the production of steel in the city.
Demise of small-town hotels
While hotels were the "center of the community" in the '30s and '40s, that changed with the invention of the automobile and construction of highways.
"Every town had a hotel built like this in the 1920s because people were getting their cars for the first time" Hotel Bethlehem's Managing Partner Bruce Haines said.
"Henry Ford made it so the average family no longer had to travel by horse and buggy.
"But when the 1950s came and interstate highways were built, what happened is all those people who were driving through Main Streets like in Bethlehem, they all went to the interstates and bypassed the downtowns.
"Hotels like the Holiday Inns and Howard Johnsons opened up near the highway exits, and people were no longer driving through the towns.
"A lot of hotels went bankrupt, so there are only 10 percent of the 1920s hotels that exist today, us being one of them."
Tracking down Gray's murals
As the small-town hotels crumbled economically, Gray's murals were lost or destroyed.
Anne Gossen, an art historian based in Ithaca, New York, has researched Gray's legacy and is writing a book about his life.
The book will include personal quotes from Gray's journals.
"Despite their impressive architecture, many of the hotels that received murals by Gray were demolished in the 1960s, and the murals were destroyed with the buildings," Gossen said.
"Their life-scale size makes an immersive experience, and the quality is outstanding"Historian Anne Gossen
"Some other murals Gray created were relocated."
Through her research, Gossen was able to track down Gray's last remaining murals, including the set inside Hotel Bethlehem.
"There are several locations where you can see relocated murals today," Gossen said "For instance, the Pony Express National Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri."
Another, depicting the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner, was relocated from the Hotel Rennert in Baltimore, Maryland, to nearby Fort McHenry.
Gossen, who describes Gray's American realism with elements of impressionism and illustration art, became interested in his work after seeing the murals in person.
"Their life-scale size makes an immersive experience, and the quality is outstanding," she said.
Combat artist
Perhaps even more outstanding, Gossen said, were Gray's contributions to the military.
In 1962, Gray was commissioned to paint the U.S.S. Constitution in Boston Harbor and spent six weeks sketching Marines in combat in Vietnam.
"I was very naive about that war and kept wandering off," Gray told McGarrity in 1996. "And after some close calls that scared me half to death, they had to assign a rifleman to me."
Gossen said his work as a combat artist depicts his dedication to both his art and love of country.
"Gray's combat art depicts first-hand dedication and pride of service members on duty," she said. "He emphasizes details and moods, evoking emotions and actions.
"Combat art allows artists a greater ability to direct the attention of viewers than photojournalism does."
Coast Guard, Navy art programs
In 1981, Gray cofounded the Coast Guard Art Program, which holds more than 2,200 works created by active Coast Guard members.
Each year, an artist is awarded the George Gray Award for artistic excellence, and art from the program is exhibited at museums around the country, offices of members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, senior government officials, and Coast Guard locations nationwide.
Just as Kincaid commissioned him during WWII, Gray was approached by the Coast Guard based on the success of the Navy Art Cooperation and Liaison Committee that he originated and was chairman of at the Salmagundi Club in New York City years prior.
"Through his murals across America and the touring exhibitions of the Navy and Coast Guard art programs, Gray's art reached hundreds of thousands of people and helped shape their perception of American history and the armed forces," Gossen said.
"Gray's personal motivation was to convey the commitment of service members to the public at large, showing the excellent work that they do."
Meeting the model
Today, Gray's Lehigh Valley-themed murals can be found high in the ceilings of the Hotel Bethlehem's Mural Ballroom.
There, the muted colors and colorful scenes of local history come alive, thanks to lighting and matching gilded gold accents.
Haines said the hotel may change the name of the ballroom to the Mural Gallery in lieu of the honor from the Historic Hotels of America.
"This recognition will help share our beloved art with the world."Hotel Bethlehem Managing Partner Bruce Haines
After all, Gray's paintings, which were previously housed in the hotel's first-floor Pioneer Tap Room in 1936 and later the second-floor bar, are a vital part of the hotel's history.
As Haines walked through the hotel on a recent afternoon, he brought out a photo of him with the woman who modeled for Gray 89 years ago.
Her stand-in role was of Zinzendorf's daughter, Benigna Zinzendorf.
"She was visiting the hotel many years ago and told me she posed as Benigna," Haines said. "I couldn't believe it, she was then an older woman, it was so wonderful to meet her."
Of Gray's work, Haines said it shows Bethlehem's most important moments in history.
"This recognition will help share our beloved art with the world," he said.
