Education and Early Career

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These ten redwood panels originally lined the walls of the dining room of Culbertson’s house, inscribed with the motto “The Beauty of the House is Order.” Their current appearance is the result of their later removal, recovery, and recent conservation. After 1915, Culbertson’s wife, Nora, continued to inhabit the house until her death in 1950, when it passed to other family members. In 1955, architect Whitney Smith designed the remodeling of the house, which involved removal of the second floor and many of the decorative details of the entry hall, dining room, and den, including these redwood panels. The panels were retrieved and added to the exterior of another local house, where they remained for many years, cut to the forms you see and subjected to many layers of paint and exposure to the elements and infestation. Conservation and the careful removal of paint have revealed that the letters in the motto were highlighted with colored paints.