The school's oil paintings include many portraits of faculty, including those of deans, which line the walls of Booth Hall, a classroom with dark wood benches and commemorative stained-glass windows. A favorite of Heinz's is an oil portrait of Thomas Drummond by George P. A. Healy, a famous Chicago painter of the 19th century. That is located in the Administrative Services office on the second floor in Levy Mayer. No doubt the school's diverse collection offers something for anyone interested in art or legal history. But less apparent to the casual observer are the substantial efforts that go into preserving the art work, said Heinz.
People assume that art just sits there and nothing needs to be done.
But almost all of the Wigmore prints were framed in acid boards and were deteroriating. The restoration program includes using buffering agents to counteract the acid deteriorating the prints and reframing them in non-acidic ragboards. Donations for the program included those of the Joseph Buchwald Fund and Marian P. Havighurst, the wife of Harold Canfield Havighurst, dean of the School of Law from 1948 to 1957. When former students look back, they remember the somewhat eccentric collection of prints put together by Dean Wigmore, the framed quotations from lawyers and the inspirational sayings on the walls.