Clio Hall, Princeton 

John Conway Menihan rendered Clio Hall in Princeton with lithographic crayon. Dominating this tranquil scene is the building itself, a classical temple front with its stoic Doric columns. This architectural vocabulary hearkens back to ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy and philosophy. Such a design invokes the ideals of reason, order, and civic virtue – values deeply embedded in the Western academic tradition. But observe how these symbols of enlightenment have journeyed through time. The temple form, once dedicated to pagan deities, was later adopted by early Christians, repurposed as symbols of spiritual authority. Through the Renaissance, it re-emerged as a symbol of humanism, celebrating earthly intellectual pursuits. The motif evokes a collective, subconscious longing for stability and continuity, a visual anchor in a world of flux. In this image, the temple front has resurfaced yet again, this time to signify the pursuit of knowledge within the hallowed halls of an American university.