The Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) was a

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 ...

arts program that commissioned visual artists to provide artistic decoration for existing Federal buildings during the

Great Depression in the United States In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high u ...

. A project of 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. ...

, TRAP was administered by 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 ...

and funded by 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 ...

, which provided assistants employed through the

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 Treasury Relief Art Project also created murals and sculpture for

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

housing projects. TRAP was established July 21, 1935, and continued through June 30, 1938.

Program

The Treasury Relief Art Project was created July 21, 1935, with an allocation of $530,784 from the Works Progress Administration. The project was conceived and overseen by Treasury Department arts administrator Edward Bruce. Artist Olin Dows was chief of the Treasury Relief Art Project; Cecil H. Jones, who later succeeded Dows, was assistant chief. Forbes Watson was director. Unlike the concurrent Treasury

, TRAP was a work-relief program, subject to the income and employment standards of the WPA. The September 1935 announcement of the program estimated that it would employ 400 to 500 artists. The principal mission of the Treasury Relief Art Project was to provide artistic decoration for existing Federal buildings. These projects could not be performed by the Section of Painting and Sculpture, which commissioned art for new construction using a percentage of the budget overseen by the Treasury Department's procurement division. The Treasury Relief Art Project was funded by the WPA. 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

. As chief of the Treasury Relief Art Project, Dows was responsible for maintaining financial records for relief and non-relief personnel. A fixed proportion of all workers was to be taken from the relief rolls—initially 90 percent, but revised to 75 percent in December 1935. Although it was regarded as a success, the Treasury Relief Art Project was ended June 30, 1938.

Projects

At a total cost of $833,784, 89 mural projects and 65 sculpture projects were completed under the Treasury Relief Art Project, as well as 10,000 easel paintings that were distributed to Federal offices. Reginald Marsh was the master artist commissioned in 1937 to create a cycle of murals in

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

for the rotunda of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House. Marsh's team of assistants included Oliver M. Baker, Xavier J. Barile, Charles Bateman, Mary Fife, Lloyd Lozes Goff, Ludwig Mactarian, John Poehler, Erica Volsung and J. Walkley, students he knew from his teaching at the Art Students League. It was TRAP's most extensive and successful project in New York, encompassing 2,300 square feet. Existing post office buildings that received TRAP artwork included the following: * Beacon, New York *

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

* Cooperstown, New York * Cranford, New Jersey * Dover, Delaware *

East Liverpool, Ohio East Liverpool is a city in Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 9,958 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It lies along the Ohio River at the intersection of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia about from both ...

Eureka, California Eureka ( ; Wiyot: ; Hupa: ; ) is a city and the county seat of Humboldt County, located on the North Coast of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, north of San Francisco and south of the Oreg ...

Freeport, New York Freeport is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village, village in the town of Hempstead, New York, Hempstead, in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island, in New York (state), ...

Geneva, New York Geneva is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, Ontario and Seneca County, New York, Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is at the northern end of Seneca Lake (New York), Seneca Lake; all land port ...

Hempstead, New York The Town of Hempstead is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) on Long Island, in New York, United States. The town's combined population was 793,409 at the 2020 census. It occupies the s ...

Hudson, New York Hudson is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Columbia County, New York, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, it had a population of 5,894. On the east side of the Hudson River, f ...

Hudson Falls, New York Hudson Falls (formerly Sandy Hill) is a village located in Washington County, New York, United States. The village is in the southwest of the town of Kingsbury, on U.S. Route 4. Hudson Falls is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical ...

* Johnson City, New York *

Mount Kisco, New York Mount Kisco is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village and Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous municipality, coterminous with the ...

* New York General Post Office * New York General Post Office Annex *

Nyack, New York Nyack () is a Village (New York), village primarily located in the Town (New York), town of Orangetown, New York, Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, a small western section of the village lies in Clarkst ...

Oyster Bay, New York The Town of Oyster Bay is the easternmost of the three Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns that make up Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is ...

Port Chester, New York Port Chester is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the largest part of the town of Rye (town), New York, Rye in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County by populati ...

* Port Washington, New York *

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the ...

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the federal capital, capital of the United States from November 1 until D ...

* Ventura, California In addition to producing artwork for Federal buildings, the Treasury Relief Art Project created murals and sculpture for

housing projects in Boston, Camden, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Washington, D.C. and Stamford.

Artists

To maintain its high artistic standards, the Treasury Relief Art Project commissioned only a small number of artists—356 workers at its peak in 1936. Richmond Barthé, Ahron Ben-Shmuel, Paul Cadmus, Marion Greenwood, William Gropper, Reginald Marsh and Heinz Warneke were among the master artists who led projects. A complete list of projects and artists employed by TRAP is included in the final report held by the Smithsonian's

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

. * Grace Greenwood Ames * Frank Arno * Oliver M. Baker * Theodore Barbarossa * Xavier J. Barile * Richmond Barthé * Giuseppe Bartoli * Richmond Bartoli * Charles Bateman * Ahron Ben-Shmuel * Emil Bisttram * La Verne Nelson Black * Clarence Bolton * Daniel Boza * Helen Bell Bruton * Paul Cadmus * Gustavo Cenci * Edward Chavez * Grant Wright Christian * Lawrence Cupani *

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, ...

* Thomas Donnelly * Aaron Douglas * Elsie Driggs * John Fabion * Mary Fife * Bernard Finestone * Gladys Caldwell Fisher * Gerald Foster * Frederick Knight * Robert Fuller * Vincent Glinsky * Lloyd Lozes Goff * Gordon K. Grant * Marion Greenwood * William Gropper * Rudolf Henn * Ben Hoffman * Bela Janowsky * Robert Kaplan * Charles Kassler * Frederick Knight * Thomas Laman * Harry S. Lane * Thomas Sergeant La Farge * Dominic La Salle * Frederico Lebrun * Leo Lentelli * Louis Lozowick * Frank A. Machera * Ann B. McNulty * Ludwig Mactarian * Jenne Magafan * Peppino Mangravite * Reginald Marsh * Edgar Miller * James D. Mitchel * Domenico Mortellito * Ann Rice O'Hanlon * Morris Pass * Channing Peake * Guy Pène du Bois * Ernest Peixotto * Jacob Peltzman * George A. Picken * John A. Poehler * Edna Reindel * John T. Robertson * Frank Romanelli * Charles Rosen * Victor Salvatore * Susan Scheuer * Arthur Schneider * Leo Schulemowitz * David Slivka * Jacob G. Smeth * Doris Spiegel * Erwin Springweiler * Algot Stenbery * Abell Sturges * Arthur A. Sturges * Lorin Thompson * Conrad Vasquez * Gaetano Venezia * Eduardo Villafrato * Erica Volsung * Winfield R. Walking * Heinz Warneke * William D. White File:Pene-Du-Bois-Saratoga-New-York.jpg, Guy Pène du Bois, ''Saratoga in Racing Season'' (1937), United States Post Office, Saratoga Springs, New York File:Interior of US Post Office, Beacon, NY.jpg, Charles Rosen's mural in the post office in Beacon, New York File:Berkeley Post Office Elevator Mural.jpg, Susan Scheuer, ''Incidents in California History'' (1937), mural for the post office in Berkeley, California

References

External links

New Deal Artwork: Ownership and Responsibility
��

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...

Treasury Relief Art Project selected administrative and business records, 1935–1939
�� Archive of American Art,

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

{{New Deal visual arts programs New Deal projects of the arts Works Progress Administration American art Murals in the United States 1935 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1938 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. Work relief programs