In 1976, Carolyn-Joyce Albino, the art teacher at Holden Junior High School, initiated a school-wide project to commemorate the nation's bicentennial by creating a mural of tiles that illustrated ideas, events and people from the past 200 years of American history.

After drafting the initial list and asking the other teachers to add to it, Ms. Albino invited all the students to choose their topics. Many times, items the students didn't know about had to be explained to them; for example, the Colt 45, or LSD, prompting many great discussions. Teachers painted tiles as well, although it sometimes took a lot of convincing!

Completion of the mural took almost the whole year as it was done while the regular art projects were ongoing. That spring, the mural was installed in the hallway of the 'new building,' where it survived the 1980 fire that destroyed the older part of the school.

The mural encompasses people, places, and events, from Paul Revere's ride to Elvis Presley, from hang gliding to the gold rush, from women's rights to the Civil War.

In addition to representing American history in general, the mural is also an historical document from the mid-seventies. There are tiles on the energy crisis, Watergate, skateboarding and bellbottoms.

A wide range of artistic styles are represented. There are bold, expressive tiles; delicate, almost transparent tiles, logos, landscapes, portraits, and maps.

Today the mural is installed in Mountview Middle School, where it can be enjoyed by new generations of students.

This website was created to allow greater visibility for and access to the mural. Clicking on the name of a person, or an individual tile, will generate a popup window with a larger image and more detail.

In a number of cases, the artist's name and/or the title of a tile is missing or faded. If you can provide any information about any of the tiles, please email us at holdentiles@gmail.com.