"Gloria in Excelsis Deo"

This mural by Robert McCall (1919–2010) illustrates the connection between the artist’s love of space and his Christian faith. The sky is full of planets, galaxies, and stars. Rising from the central planet is a large cross with a banner above that reads, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo,” meaning, “Glory to God in the Highest.” At the end of the large portico are three singers dressed in choir robes. The mural was commissioned by the wife of a deceased choir member to adorn the choir room of Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona, where the artist and his wife attended weekly.

McCall was the premier illustrator for NASA during the height of the space race and was frequently published in Popular Science magazine. He created the promotional art for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and his work is featured at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Epcot Center at Disneyworld.

Created in 1990 for Valley Presbyterian Church, Paradise Valley, Arizona;[1] Donated in 2019 to Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.

Notes: [1] Commissioned by Linnea Hendrickson in honor of her deceased husband, Ed.