The ceiling mural in the Chrysler Building's lobby was painted by which artist?

Edward Trumbull painted the ceiling mural in the Chrysler Building’s lobby.

The mural, titled “Transport and Human Endeavor,” was completed in 1930 for the skyscraper’s lobby. Painted on canvas and attached to the ceiling, it presents a dramatic Art Deco vision of energy, industry, transportation, and technological achievement.

Its imagery reflects the building’s connection with the Chrysler automobile company and the machine age. The composition includes airplanes, industrial furnaces, the Chrysler Building itself, and references to modern engineering. Its gold and ochre tones, sharp angles, geometric forms, and stylized figures reinforce the building’s broader Art Deco vocabulary.

Trumbull was an American muralist who also worked on other major transportation-themed projects, including the Graybar Passage mural in Grand Central Terminal. The Chrysler mural was exceptionally large for its time and became one of the lobby’s central attractions.

The distractors are plausible because Thomas Hart Benton, José Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera were all prominent muralists. None, however, painted this Chrysler Building ceiling work; the artist specifically associated with it is Trumbull.