According the USC News bureau, "Beginning on the east and west walls, the figures carry the symbolic story of periods in civilization's history leading to the climax of industry and science depicted over the front doorway. Termed as 'painted music', the fresco is done in equal rhythmic measures. Each is controlled every eighteen feet by a pause as in a musical bar, explained Mr. Miller. Its technique permits the reading of either the figures or the spaces between.
The first figure symbolizes the hand of god releasing 'conscience' to represent culture. Then through periods of biblical history, the Egyptian scribe and communication, the cycle of Christianity, printing, and the Renaissance. The story turns the building corner with navigation and the new world. Leading from the west wall are progressive periods from Norsemen and the Orient through the days of the American frontiersmen, slavery and Lincoln, the Liberty bell, and a symbol of man struggling with the machine age which threatens to overcome him."