William Baggett

In the early 1990's a mural for the forthcoming Hattiesburg, Petal and Forrest County Public Library of Hattiesburg, Mississippi was proposed by William Baggett to the selected architect for the project, Larry Albert. In turn, Albert conceived a remarkable arrangement for a very large mural painted inside a truncated cone form, to be suspended some 35 feet above the floor within the vertical space of the atrium. Within a remarkably short time span the library board found private funding for the project and the three year mural project began with similar timing to the building's construction calendar. However, for the mural, research and preliminary drawings required two years of development before painting could begin at the construction site. On time however, two years later, the mural project moved on-site even before the walls and roof of the new building had been completed in order to meet the building's construction deadlines. The building and the mural advanced side by side for a full year, with both being successful in meeting their deadlines.