Tamekichi Carl Hibino painted the Owens Valley mural in 1943, while incarcerated in Manzanar. Photo by Ansel Adams, courtesy Library of Congress.
In celebration of the Inyo County Sesquicentennial and the National Park Service Centennial, Eastern California Museum and Manzanar National Historic Site invites the public to the unveiling of a recently conserved three-panel of the Owns Valley painted by Tamekichi Carl Hibino in 1943 while he and his family were incarcerated in Manzanar. This is believed to be the first public display of the painting since 1945.
The unveiling event will be held on Saturday, April 9 at 2:00 pm on the auditorium stage of the Visitor Center in the Manzanar National Historic Site. The mural will be exhibited during the unveiling and on special occasions. Friends of the Eastern California Museum will provide refreshments.
Nearly two decades before Congress established Manzanar National Historic Site, Eastern California Museum was collaborating with Japanese American and local communities to preserve Manzanar artifacts and stories.
A visit to Eastern California Museum remains a unique opportunity to explore history through artifacts, artworks and photos, thereby enhancing a visit to Manzanar itself.
The partnership between Eastern California Museum and the National Park Service facilitates collaboration and preservation of a large three-panel mural of the Owens Valley, along with six other paintings from Eastern California Museum’s collections.
On this occasion, Manzanar History Association will premiere a new postcard featuring a 1943 Ansel Adams photo of Hibino painting the mural.
Hibino emigrated from Japan in 1903 and worked as a farmer, storekeeper, and dry cleaner in Arizona and Texas. During the Depression, he lost his business and moved to Los Angeles. In 1942, Hibino, along with his wife and two daughters, was forced to move to Manzanar where he eventually took a job as an artist for the camp’s Visual Education Museum.
Manzanar is located at 5001 Hwy, six miles south of Independence, California.
For more information, call California Eastern Museum at (760) 878-0258 or visit http://www.inyocounty.us/ecmsite Both Eastern California Museum and Manzanar National Historical Site have Facebook pages.
