Panels #3 and #4 at the Allen Memorial Medical Library.

Cleveland newspapers and magazines often commented on the small size of muralist Cora Millet Holden (1895-1938) in relationship to the enormity of the work she undertook. In 1918, when student-Holden received the commission for the war memorial murals in Akron, Ohio, the headlines of an article written by an anonymous author stated, "Cleveland Girl Completes Big Akron Painting." The murals were thought by a Bystander ­ Town Topics reporter to be "startling" for two reasons: "first because of their strength, their fine color composition and profundity of conception; second, because they were the work of...a slight, almost diminutive woman, assuredly not the individual to be associated with the breadth and sweep of a mural." Holden was on a leave from her teaching assignment at the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) when she negotiated to paint the murals for the Allen Memorial Medical Library in 1926. She was living and studying in Europe and correspondence between her and the Cleveland Medical Library Association's Building Committee provides some idea of the progress of the project. In the minutes of the Building Committee, May 13, 1925, members were urged to make a decision regarding the murals and firm up the selection of artist. Holden was the main contender and she was anxious to know whether she should go to Greece to study the "actual surroundings" in preparation of the murals which were going to be based on the story of "Asklepios, Greek God of Medicine". Whether Holden did travel to Greece is unclear, but she was awarded the commission. It was necessary for the Committee to secure a $10,000 donation in order to hire Holden. Mrs. Walter Merriam became the donor, honoring her physician-husband with the murals at the medical library.

Panels #1 and #4 at the Allen Memorial Medical Library

Contracts chronicling the terms of the agreement were sent to Holden in care of American Express, Paris, early in 1926 along with earnest money of $1,000. When Holden returned the documents to Committee chair Dr. Henry L. Sanford on 23 February, 1926, she referred to her mother's and grandparents' medical backgrounds saying, "My straying from the path is now in some measure compensated." Both Holden's mother, Cora Millet Babb Holden (1856- ), and her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Millet Babb (1831-1911) were physicians, having graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1882 and 1872, respectively. Her grandfather Luther Potter Babb was also an M.D. In subsequent letters to the artist the Committee stressed the importance of having at least one panel installed in time for the dedication of the building in mid-September, 1926. It was agreed that upon her return from Europe the artist could use a room on the third floor of the building (where the Dittrick Museum is currently located) to execute the murals. By September 20th, however, the building was not completed although one of Holden's murals was! The new building was designed by the Cleveland architectural firm, Walker and Weeks, who had advocated that the contract for the murals be awarded to Holden. She had worked with them in 1923 when she painted the large-scale industrial scene, Steel Production, in the lobby of the newly-constructed Federal Reserve Bank.

The artist's first large scale work, the two oil on canvas panels relating to World War I that Holden painted in 1918 for Memorial Hall of the Goodyear Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio were known as Separation and Reunion. They have either been lost or destroyed as has Holden¹s series: Prosperity, Industry, Security and Integrity that she created for the Pearl Street Bank in Cleveland in 1929. The building has been demolished and the murals, perhaps her strongest, have disappeared. Steel Production, Holden's single panel in the Federal Reserve Bank, the four-part Asklepios series seen here, and her Board of Education murals, Progress in Education and Branches in Education, completed in 1931, are all in their original locations. When the theme of Asklepios, the Greek God of Medicine was proposed, the Committee, artist, and the architects were in complete agreement that the murals would chronicle the life and works of the great mythological figure. Some aspects of his biography have likely been forgotten and/or altered as the story has been told and retold, but Holden's four panels provide visual evidence of the original myth.

Holden's monumental tribute to Asklepios elicited positive comments. Several sources noted the following: "A huge success, enriching and beautifying the stairway hall of the Allen Memorial Medical Library" Greek mythology relates the drama of birth, life, and death, and Holden's life was not without this drama. The muralist¹s career waned in the third decade of the twentieth century. She was then teaching at the Cleveland School of Art, and she continued to paint portraits of some of Cleveland's most prominent people. The artist's "portraits from life" included: Mary Payne Blossom and Dudley Blossom, Jr., Kathleen Firestone, Barbara and Peter Greenough, Sherman and Elinor Hayden, John and Peter Gosling, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Robert Mewett (currently among the collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society). In the December 1929 issue of the Bystander, Holden¹s portraits were singled out for praise and in December 1933 art critic Grace V. Kelly said that Holden had a "flair for recognizing the essential qualities of her subjects...." Kelly also reported, In the 50th anniversary of work by former students of the Cleveland School of Art, held in October at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Miss Holden was strongly represented by three portraits, including two lovely children, Benita Barnes and George Barnes Jr., and Dr. Harold N. Cole, associate clinical professor of dermatology at Western Reserve University. But this did not seem to be enough. Although she entered at least one piece in each yearly May Show during the thirties, Holden was awarded only one "Honorable Mention." Her health was said to be declining and, by 1938, she was unable to teach. On 18 November, 1938 the Cleveland Plain Dealer had the unenviable task of informing the community that the body of the artist/muralist had been found in "Lake Erie near the foot of E.105th Street" the day before. Only her mother, Dr. Cora M. Holden, survived her.

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