United States post office murals are notable examples of

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

art produced during the years 1934–1943. They were commissioned through a competitive process by the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

. Some 1,400 murals were created for federal post office buildings in more than 1,300 U.S. cities. Murals still extant are the subject of efforts by the

U.S. Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

to preserve and protect them. In 2019, the USPS issued a sheet of 10 Forever stamps commemorating the murals; the murals were from the post offices of Piggott, AR; Anadarko, OK; Florence, CO; Deming, NM; and Rockville, MD.

History

As one of the projects in the

during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

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 Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual o ...

was appropriated for the construction of federal buildings, such as

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

s 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 Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section s ...

(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

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s, approximately

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

s 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 The Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) was a New Deal arts program that commissioned visual artists to provide artistic decoration for existing Federal buildings during the Great Depression in the United States. A project of the United States De ...

(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 Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

. 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 Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

. The Section and the Treasury Relief Art Project were overseen by

Edward Bruce Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick (Norman French: ; ; Modern Scottish Gaelic: or ; 1280 – 14 October 1318), was a younger brother of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. He supported his brother in the 1306–1314 struggle for the Scottish cro ...

, 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

(1935–1943) of the

, 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

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

s. 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 critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

s, fellow artists and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s, 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 Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

social realism Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

, and

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

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

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

s of rural people being portrayed merely as hicks and hayseeds and not having the murals express their cultural values and

work ethic Work ethic is a belief that work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or value to strengthen character and individual abilities. Desire or determination to work serves as the foundation for values centered on the i ...

s. 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 Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, 19 post offices received murals, with two post offices, one in Berryville, Carroll County and another in

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

, Drew County, receiving

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. For seven decades following the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, Arkansas had been perceived as the epitome of

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

and

illiteracy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

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 Victor Mikhail Arnautoff (November 11, 1896 – March 22, 1979) was a Russian-American painter and professor of art. He worked in San Francisco and the Bay Area from 1925 to 1963, including two decades as a teacher at Stanford University, and was ...

* Ernest Hamlin Baker * Belle Baranceanu * Edith Barry * Gifford Beal * Rainey Bennett * Lester W. Bentley *

Oscar E. Berninghaus Oscar Edmund Berninghaus (October 2, 1874 – April 27, 1952) was an American artist and a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. He is best known for his paintings of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans, New Mexico ...

* Theresa Bernstein * Auriel Bessemer * Edward Biberman *

George Biddle George Biddle (January 24, 1885 – November 6, 1973) was an American painter, muralist and lithographer, best known for his social realism and combat art. A childhood friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he played a major role in establis ...

* 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 Louis Henri Jean Charlot (February 8, 1898 – March 20, 1979) was a French-born American painter and illustrator, active mainly in Mexico and the United States. Life Charlot was born in Paris. His father, Henri, owned an import-export business ...

* Minna Citron * Frederick Conway * Howard Cook * Dean Cornwell * John Edward Costigan * Arthur Covey * Gustaf Dalstrom *

James Daugherty James Henry Daugherty (June 1, 1889 – February 21, 1974) was an American modernism, American modernist painter, muralist, children's book author and illustrator. Life Daugherty was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He later lived in Indiana, ...

* Horace Day * Boris Deutsch *

Maynard Dixon Maynard Dixon (January 24, 1875 – November 11, 1946) was an American artist. He was known for his paintings, and his body of work focused on the American West. Dixon is considered one of the finest artists having dedicated most of their art to ...

* Margaret Dobson * Stevan Dohanos * Olin Dows * Ethel Edwards *

Stephen Etnier Stephen Morgan Etnier (September 11, 1903 – November 7, 1984) was an American realist painter, and an active painter for six decades. His work is distinguished by a mixture of realism and luminism, favoring industrial and working scenes ...

* 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 Arnold Friedman (February 23, 1879 – December 29, 1946) was an American Modernism, American Modernist painter. Life He was born in Corona, Queens, Corona, Queens, worked for the Federal Art Project and studied at the Art Students Leagu ...

* Lee Gatch * Robert Franklin Gates * Arthur Getz * Paul L. Gill * Lloyd Lozes Goff * Anne Goldthwaite * Xavier Gonzalez * Bertram Goodman *

Adolph Gottlieb Adolph Gottlieb (March 14, 1903 – March 4, 1974) was an American abstract expressionist painterChilvers, Ian & Claves-Smith, John eds., ''Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. pp. 282-283 who also m ...

* 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 Dahlov Ipcar (née Zorach; November 12, 1917 – February 10, 2017) was an American painter, illustrator and author. She was best known for her colorful, kaleidoscopic-styled paintings featuring animals – primarily in either farm or wild setti ...

* Reva Jackman * Mitchell Jamieson * Edwin Boyd Johnson * J. Theodore Johnson * Allen Jones * Joe Jones * Sheffield Kagy *

Joseph Kaplan Joseph Kaplan (September 8, 1902 – October 3, 1991) was a Hungarian-born American physicist. ttps://web.archive.org/web/20130719093953/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-10-13/news/1991286049_1_perry-ellis-museum-of-art-guggenheim-museum Balt ...

* Charles Kassler * Rockwell Kent * Roy King (artist), 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 Thomas "Tom" Calloway Lea III (July 11, 1907 – January 29, 2001) was an American muralist, illustrator, artist, war correspondent, novelist, and historian. The bulk of his art and literary works were about Texas, north-central Mexico, and his W ...

* Doris Lee * Hilton Leech * Robert Lepper * Edmund Lewandowski * Arthur Lidov * Abraham Lishinsky * Elizabeth Lochrie * Michael Loew * Frank Long *

Peppino Mangravite Peppino Mangravite (June 28, 1896 – April 26, 1978) was an Italian-American Modernist painter. Peppino Gino Mangravite was born in 1896, on Lipari, an island north of Sicily, where his father, a naval officer, was stationed. As a child he began ...

* Ila Mae McAfee * Ambrose McCarthy * John McCrady * Musa McKim * Miriam McKinnie *

Kindred McLeary Kindred McLeary (December 3, 1901, Weimar, Texas – May 29, 1949) was an American architect, artist and educator. Education Kindred McLeary studied architecture at the University of Texas and earned his degree in 1927. While teaching at the U ...

* Ludwig Mactarian * Ethel Magafan * Herman Maril * Reginald Marsh *

David Stone Martin David Stone Martin, born David Livingstone Martin (June 13, 1913 – March 6, 1992 in New London, Connecticut) was an American artist best known for his illustrations on jazz record albums.Detailed biographical information is spread throughout ...

* Fletcher Martin * Frank Mechau * Paul Meltsner * Ross Moffett * Stephen Mopope * F. Luis Mora * Carl Morris *

Archibald Motley Archibald John Motley, Jr. (October 7, 1891 – January 16, 1981), was an American visual artist. Motley is most famous for his colorful chronicling of the African-American experience in Chicago during the 1920s through 1940s, and is considered o ...

* 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 George Warren Rickey (June 6, 1907 – July 17, 2002) was an American kinetic sculptor known for geometric abstractions, often large-scale, engineered to move in response to air currents. Early life and education Rickey was born on June 6, ...

* Boardman Robinson * Paul Herman Rohland * Louise Emerson Ronnebeck *

Charles Rosen Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music. He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notable among them the book '' The Classical St ...

* 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 John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best know ...

* Jacob Getlar Smith * William Sommer * Moses Soyer * Raphael Soyer * Ethel Spears * Francis C. Speight * Niles Spencer *

Harry Sternberg Harry Sternberg (1904–2001), was an American Painting, painter, printmaking, printmaker and educator. He taught at the Art Students League of New York, from 1933 to c. 1966. Biography Childhood, family life, and education Sternberg's parents h ...

* 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 Marguerite Zorach (née Thompson; September 25, 1887 – June 27, 1968) was an American fauvism, Fauvist Painting, painter, textile artist, and graphic designer, and was an early exponent of modernism in America. She won the 1920 Logan Medal of t ...

Milford Zornes James Milford Zornes (January 25, 1908 – February 24, 2008) was an American Watercolor painting, watercolor artist and teacher known as part of the California Scene Painting movement. Biography Milford Zornes was born in rural western Okla ...

* 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 Henry Varnum Poor (December 8, 1812 – January 4, 1905) was an American financial analyst and founder of H.V. and H.W. Poor Co, which later evolved into the financial research and analysis bellwether, Standard & Poor's. Biography Born in East ...

, 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.

External links

*Historian, United States Postal Service.
New Deal Art in Post Offices
' (September 2015) *David Lembeck,
Rediscovering the People's Art, New Deal Murals in Pennsylvania Post Offices
', with photographs by Michael Mutmansky, (2008)

(2009)

(2009)
The History of United States Post Office Murals
(2018) {{United States Postal Service Murals in the United States Public art in the United States United States Postal Service Section of Painting and Sculpture Treasury Relief Art Project Postal history of the United States