Christopher Columbus at Erie: Henry Mercer's 'Tiles of the New World,' and Their Use in American School

Abstract

This year marks the 5OOth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the West Indies, when the Old World "officially” discovered the New. In Erie, Pennsylvania, Columbus and the encounter between Old and New Worlds is a feature of everyday life for the residents in the neighborhood of 17th and Poplar. For the last 77 years, all they needed to do to see the explorer was to raise their eyes to the mural embedded in the brick wall of the building which formerly served as the Christopher Columbus School. In honor of the anniversary, these images deserve to be set into broader contexts, and the full nuances of their meaning and history extracted.