United States post office murals

History

As one of the projects in the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States, the Public Works of Art Project (1933–1934) was developed to bring artist workers back into the job market and assure the American public that better financial times were on the way. In 1933, nearly $145 million in public funds was appropriated for the construction of federal buildings, such as courthouses, schools, libraries, post offices and other public structures, nationwide. Under the direction of the Public Works of Art Project, the agency oversaw the production of 15,660 works of art by 3,750 artists. These included 700 murals on public display. With the ending of the Public Works of Art Project in the summer of 1934, it was decided that the success of the program should be extended by founding the Section of Painting and Sculpture (renamed the Section of Fine Arts in 1938) under the U.S. Treasury Department, through Treasury Secretary Morgenthau's executive order of October 14, 1934. The Section of Painting and Sculpture was initiated to commission 1,400 murals in federal post offices buildings in more than 1,300 cities across America.

The Section focused on reaching as many American citizens as possible. Since the local post office seemed to be the most frequented government building by the public, the Section requested that the murals, approximately 12 by oil paintings on canvas, be placed on the walls of the newly constructed post offices exclusively. It was recommended that 1% of the money budgeted for each post office be set aside for the creation of the murals.

The Treasury Relief Art Project (1935–1938), which provided artistic decoration for existing Federal buildings, produced a smaller number of post office murals. TRAP was established with funds from the Works Progress Administration. The Section supervised the creative output of TRAP, and selected a master artist for each project. Assistants were then chosen by the artist from the rolls of the WPA Federal Art Project.

The Section and the Treasury Relief Art Project were overseen by Edward Bruce, who had directed the Public Works of Art Project. They were commission-driven public work programs that employed artists to beautify American government buildings, strictly on the basis of quality. This contrasts with the work-relief mission of the Federal Art Project (1935–1943) of the Works Progress Administration, the largest of the New Deal art projects. So great was its scope and cultural impact that the term "WPA" is often mistakenly used to describe all New Deal art, including the U.S. post office murals. "New Deal artwork" is a more accurate term to describe the works of art created under the federal art programs of that period.

The murals are the subject of efforts by the U.S. Postal Service to preserve and protect them. This is particularly important and problematical as some of them have disappeared or deteriorated. Some are installed in buildings that are worth far less than the artwork.

Process

Whereas the Public Works of Art Project paid artists hourly wages, the Section of Fine Arts program awarded contracts to artists based on works entered in both regional and national competitions. For this purpose, the country was divided into 16 regions.

Artists submitted sketches anonymously to a committee of their peers for judging. The committees, composed of art critics, fellow artists and architects, selected the finest works. These were then sent, along with the artists' names in sealed envelopes, to the Section of Fine Arts for ultimate selection. This anonymity was to ensure that all competing artists had an equal opportunity of winning a commission. However, many local painters felt they were being kept out of the process, with the majority of contracts going to the better known artists.

Artists were asked to paint in an "American scene" style, depicting ordinary citizens in a realistic manner. Abstract art, modern art, social realism, and allegory were discouraged. Artists were also encouraged to produce works that would be appropriate to the communities where they were to be located and to avoid controversial subjects. Projects were closely scrutinized by the Section for style and content, and artists were paid only after each stage in the creative process was approved.

Concerns

The selection of out-of-state artists sometimes generated concerns, such as stereotypes of rural people being portrayed merely as hicks and hayseeds and not having the murals express their cultural values and work ethics. Many residents of small towns, most notably in the Southern states, resented the portrayal of rural lifestyles by artists who had never visited the areas where their artwork would be displayed.

In Arkansas, 19 post offices received murals, with two post offices, one in Berryville, Carroll County and another in Monticello, Drew County, receiving sculpture. For seven decades following the Civil War, Arkansas had been perceived as the epitome of poverty and illiteracy by the rest of the nation. Many Arkansans had dealt with hardship and tribulation on a daily basis and the coming of the Depression had not made life easier. Although the sketches of such renowned artists as Thomas Hart Benton and Joseph P. Vorst were based on actual events and people encountered during their travels across the state, they sometimes focused on the worst aspects of life in these rural towns.

This was not the legacy that Arkansans wished to leave their children and grandchildren. They wanted the murals to give hope to the younger generation in overcoming adversity, and provide inspiration for a brighter future with better things to come. In some instances, artists were asked to submit multiple drawings before being accepted by the community. When approval was given by the local residents on the artists’ final sketches, work on the murals proceeded, much to the satisfaction of all those involved.

Notable artists

• Ida Abelman

• Kenneth Miller Adams

• Dewey Albinson

• Lee Allen

• Edmund Archer (artist)

• Paul Theodore Arlt

• Victor Arnautoff

• Ernest Hamlin Baker

• Belle Baranceanu

• Edith Barry

• Gifford Beal

• Rainey Bennett

• Lester W. Bentley

• Oscar E. Berninghaus

• Theresa Bernstein

• Auriel Bessemer

• Edward Biberman

• George Biddle

• Henry Billings

• Julien Binford

• Emil Bisttram

• Arnold Blanch

• Lucile Blanch

• Lucienne Bloch

• Acee Blue Eagle

• Peter Blume

• Ernest L. Blumenschein

• Aaron Bohrod

• Louis Bouche

• Ray Boynton

• Edgar Britton

• Manuel Bromberg

• Alexander Brook

• Conrad Buff

• Byron Burford

• Paul Cadmus

• Kenneth Callahan

• Clarence Holbrook Carter

• Daniel Celentano

• Jean Charlot

• Minna Citron

• Frederick Conway

• Howard Cook

• Dean Cornwell

• John Edward Costigan

• Arthur Covey

• Gustaf Dalstrom

• James Daugherty

• Horace Day

• Boris Deutsch

• Maynard Dixon

• Margaret Dobson

• Stevan Dohanos

• Olin Dows

• Ethel Edwards

• Stephen Etnier

• Philip Evergood

• William Dean Fausett

• Paul Faulkner

• Denman Fink

• John Kelly Fitzpatrick

• Joseph Fleck

• Seymour Fogel

• Helen Katharine Forbes

• Frances Foy

• Jared French

• Arnold Friedman

• Lee Gatch

• Robert Franklin Gates

• Arthur Getz

• Paul L. Gill

• Lloyd Lozes Goff

• Anne Goldthwaite

• Xavier Gonzalez

• Bertram Goodman

• Adolph Gottlieb

• Sante Graziani

• Gordon Grant

• Grace Greenwood

• Marion Greenwood

• Davenport Griffen

• William Gropper

• Philip Guston

• Robert Gwathmey

• Richard Haines

• Sally Haley

• Edith Hamlin

• George Matthews Harding

• Charles Russell Hardman

• George Albert Harris

• Abraham Harriton

• Ernest Martin Hennings

• Charles Trumbo Henry

• Natalie Smith Henry

• Victor Higgins

• George Snow Hill

• Stefan Hirsch

• Alexandre Hogue

• Milton Horn

• Victoria Hutson Huntley

• Peter Hurd

• Dahlov Ipcar

• Reva Jackman

• Mitchell Jamieson

• Edwin Boyd Johnson

• J. Theodore Johnson

• Allen Jones

• Joe Jones

• Sheffield Kagy

• Joseph Kaplan

• Charles Kassler

• Rockwell Kent

• Roy King

• Eugene Kingman

• Alison Mason Kingsbury

• Vance Kirkland

• Georgina Klitgaard

• Karl Knaths

• Albert Kotin

• Edward Laning

• Robert Laurent

• Pietro Lazzari

• Thomas C. Lea III

• Doris Lee

• Hilton Leech

• Robert Lepper

• Edmund Lewandowski

• Arthur Lidov

• Abraham Lishinsky

• Elizabeth Lochrie

• Michael Loew

• Frank Long

• Peppino Mangravite

• Ila Mae McAfee

• Ambrose McCarthy

• John McCrady

• Musa McKim

• Miriam McKinnie

• Kindred McLeary

• Ludwig Mactarian

• Ethel Magafan

• Herman Maril

• Reginald Marsh

• David Stone Martin

• Fletcher Martin

• Frank Mechau

• Paul Meltsner

• Ross Moffett

• Stephen Mopope

• F. Luis Mora

• Carl Morris

• Archibald Motley

• Archie Musick

• James Michael Newell

• Dale Nichols

• Emrich Nicholson

• William C. Palmer

• Alzira Peirce

• Waldo Peirce

• Ernest Peixotto

• Guy Pène du Bois

• Bernard Perlin

• Jose Moya del Pino

• Joseph Pollet

• Dorothy Wagner Puccinelli

• J. K. Ralston

• Anton Refregier

• Edna Reindel

• Daniel Rhodes

• Louis Leon Ribak

• George Rickey

• Boardman Robinson

• Paul Herman Rohland

• Louise Emerson Ronnebeck

• Charles Rosen

• Andrée Ruellan

• Olive Rush

• Paul Sample

• Birger Sandzén

• Michael Sarisky

• Suzanne Scheuer

• Martyl Schweig

• Elise Seeds

• Ben Shahn

• Bernarda Bryson Shahn

• Henrietta Shore

• Mitchell Siporin

• John French Sloan

• Jacob Getlar Smith

• William Sommer

• Moses Soyer

• Raphael Soyer

• Ethel Spears

• Francis C. Speight

• Niles Spencer

• Harry Sternberg

• Ray Strong

• Agnes Tait

• Lorin Thompson

• Edward Buk Ulreich

• Stuyvesant Van Veen

• Philip von Saltza

• James Watrous

• Elof Wedin

• W. Richard West, Sr.

• Jessie Wilber

• Lucia Wiley

• Lumen Martin Winter

• Bernard Zakheim

• Marguerite Zorach

• Milford Zornes

• Jirayr Zorthian

48-State Mural Competition

A competition for one mural to be painted in a post office in each of the 48 states (plus Washington, D.C.) was held in November 1939 at the Corcoran Gallery. The jury selecting the winners was composed of four artists: Maurice Sterne (Chairman), Henry Varnum Poor, Edgar Miller, and Olin Dows. Winners were chosen from the original mural studies, not completed murals; community response to artist proposals sometimes resulted in revised designs.

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Harris, Jonathon. Federal Art and National Culture: The Politics of Identity in New Deal America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

• Parisi, Philip. The Texas Post Office Murals: Art for the People. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2004.

• Smith, Bradley. The USA: A History in Art. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1975.

• Gibson, Lisanne. Managing the People: Art Programs in the American Depression. Queensland, Australia: Journal The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 2002.

• Marling, Karal Ann. Wall to Wall America: Post Office Murals in the Great Depression. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982.

• Park, Marlene and Gerald E. Markowitz. Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984.

• Jones, Todd. “Mistaken Murals: The Neglected Story of the Nutmeg State’s New Deal Post Office Art.” Connecticut History Review 59, no. 1 (spring 2020): 40–79.

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130. Edwards, Ethel. (1939). "Afternoon on a Texas Ranch (mural study, Lampasas, Texas Post Office)". Smithsonian Institution.
131. Magafan, Jenne. (1939). "Western Town (mural study, Helper, Utah Post Office)". Smithsonian Institution.
132. Zoellner, Richard. (1941). "West Virginia Landscape". Smithsonian Institution.
133. Thwaits, Charles W.. (1939). "Threshing Barley (mural study, Chilton, Wisconsin Post Office)". Smithsonian Institution.