Legacy
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Hall — described by the Los Angeles Times as a “temple of contemplative study” — has housed USC Dornsife’s School of Philosophy since its completion in 1929. As Ralph Tyler Flewelling, the school’s first director, wrote shortly before the building’s dedication in 1930, “Its purpose is not to function as a mere classroom structure, but as a thing of beauty which shall symbolize the importance of philosophical thought in the pursuit of culture and in the world order.” Modeled after a Tuscan monastery, Mudd Hall is
where countless Trojan scholars have gathered to debate issues of ethics, logic, science, art, politics, and the social and political philosophy of language. Upon construction, a number of items were sealed in the hall’s cornerstone, including a copy of the university catalogue, issues of the Daily Trojan and the Los Angeles Times, and a copy of the university’s philosophical quarterly, the Personalist. Built for $285,000 under the watchful eye of USC’s fifth president, Rufus B. von KleinSmid, Mudd Hall was named in memory of copper baron and
philanthropist Seeley Wintersmith Mudd. The Mudd family is now synonymous with the support of higher education and their name appears at more than a dozen elite universities across the country. —D.K.
(above): The Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Hall of Philosophy has been home to the School of Philosophy for more than 80 years. (right): Descendants of Seeley Wintersmith Mudd donated a portrait of their celebrated ancestor in 2012. It now hangs in the hall’s Hoose Library. From left to right: Joshua Dragge
(great-great-grandson), Darian Dragge (great-granddaughter) and Wendel Bruss (great-granddaughter). send your memories to USC Dornsife Magazine, Citigroup Center 8206, 41st Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90089-8206 or magazine@dornsife.usc.edu
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Whether it’s standing in for a Seattle library in Gore Verbinski’s 2002 thriller, The Ring, providing shelter against bad guys on the ’70s television show Charlie’s Angels, or serving as an elegant backdrop during recent photoshoots for retailers H&M and Oliver Peoples Eyewear, the Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Hall of Philosophy remains one of the most recognizable buildings on USC’s University Park campus. More than merely an aesthetically pleasing edifice with a 146-foot carillon tower and cloistered patio, Mudd
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