Controversy Over Painting of Revolutionary War Hero Old Put

An uproar is raging in posh Greenwich about the display of a large mural depicting the exploits of Israel Putnam in the French and Indian War and in the Revolution. A triptych, 9 feet by 20 feet, the mural includes a scene in which Old Put, musket in hand, stares down a snarling wolf. Elsewhere, captured by Indians, he is stripped to the waist and tied to a stake with flames leaping around him. The mural was painted in 1935 by a local artist, James Daugherty, as part of a WPA program for artists in the Great Depression. For a long time the painting was displayed in the gym of the Hamilton Avenue public school. Recently it was restored and loaned to the local library. Then came plans to display it in the foyer of the newly renovated school. That's when numerous parents decided it was too scary for youngsters to look at. A news story on the ban has triggered a flood of emails from outraged Americans, as far away as California. One Greenwich resident summed up the brawl: "Unfortunately today we have to psychoanalyze everything."