Post Office Art in the 4os Collecting Cotton Post Office Art in the 30s

Introduction

Joseph P. Vorst,Rural Arkansas, Paris Mail Office.Photograph courtesy of Dr. Jonathon Glenn. Used with the permission of the United states Postal Service®. All rights reserved

Endearing images on the walls of 1930s post offices have captured the American scene and transformed the post office into a truly autonomous fine art gallery. During the Not bad Low that plagued the nation in the 1930s and 40s, Americans searched for images that could serve as beacons of hope during a time of economic and emotional despair. The Federal government, under the management of President Roosevelt, implemented a "New Deal Policy" designed to provide work for the unemployed and hope to a destitute people.

An essential element of the project took the form of fine art, more than specifically, art that the average American could chronicle to. This fine art for the people was shaped into federally funded murals that were installed in nearly 1,400 mail offices around the state. Of the twenty one murals commissioned for post offices in Arkansas, nineteen exist today.

The Great Depression

The Great Depression (1929 – 1941) was a time in American history when the very foundation upon which the nation was congenital began to teeter. Between 1929 and 1932, the boilerplate American family unit income dropped by 40%, from $2,300 to $1,500. Instead of progress, survival became the keyword. The American ideals of democracy and commercialism were questioned, the land of opportunity had get a nation of hardship and misfortune. That patriotic spirit which had come to symbolize the democratic prosperity of America was covered in a shroud of hopelessness and despair. The nation was literally starving, millions were hungry and homeless, breadlines were miles long, people had lost hope that tomorrow would bring signs of a brighter future. The nation was dwindling from economic loss and despair. This was the nation that Franklin Delano Roosevelt inherited when he took role as 32nd president of the United States in 1933. In that year lonely, 12 million American workers – ¼ of the nation's population – were declared unemployed. Determined to raise American spirits and lift the nation out of its economical slump, Roosevelt prescribed his "New Deal" Program.

The New Bargain was a serial of worker relief programs established to create jobs and funnel money directly to victims of the depression. This federal authorities'south "New Deal" syllabus called for the creation of a number of programs that became commonly known as "alphabet soup." The WPA, CCC, TVA, NRA, FSA, and AAA, were just a few of the numerous organizations established to eternalize the economy and the American spirit. Roosevelt realized that in order to cure the "Bully Low" plaguing the nation, he had to practice more than than aid the economic system- he had to heal the American spirit.

The Depression Era of the 1930s was the era of the "common man." Roosevelt in one case declared, "Always the heart and soul

Ludwig Mactarian,Cotton wool Growing, Manufacture and Export, Dardanelle Mail Office. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jonathan Glenn. Used with the permission of the United States Postal Service®. All rights reserved

of our land will be the heart and soul of the common man."[ane] To mend the torn souls of the common man, Roosevelt looked to the arts. For it was his belief that a visual symbol of hope and hope would requite Americans an image of a prosperous hereafter to turn to when hope failed and strength faltered.

In the spirit of bringing hope to the common man and bridging the gap between fine art and the American people, the New Deal sought to install images if prosperity and hope around America. Officials initiated a serial of fine art programs that deputed unemployed artists and literally brought art to the everyday American. Between the years of 1933 and 1943 the federal regime employed nearly ten m artists who produced an overwhelming quantity of work, i.e. 100,000 easel paintings, 18,000 sculptures, over thirteen,000 prints, and over 4,000 murals. The New Bargain proved to be the most comprehensive program of government art patronage in American history. It as well changed the relationship between fine art and society. Art's elitist sphere was democratized. The New Deal essentially bridged the gap between art and society by stitching a new democratic being out of the ii split worlds, all the while, literally saving a generation of artists who would have been lost to the struggles of the depression.

[one] Franklin Roosevelt, Campaign Address at Cleveland, Ohio, November two, 1940, Roosevelt Pubic Papers half dozen (New York, 1941, 1969) 5-6.

The Treasury Department

On October 13, 1934, by social club of the Secretarial assistant of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the Treasury Department'southward Section of Painting and Sculpture was officially established. Subsequently renamed the Section of Fine Arts, its mission was to transform federal buildings-generally mail service offices, into democratic fine art galleries. The Department, every bit it was commonly referred to, was the largest and longest lasting of the numerous art oriented programs established by Roosevelt's New Bargain Policy. During its nine year life, The Department employed nearly 850 artists and commissioned 1371 murals, a bulk of which were installed in post offices around the nation. The Section officially closed its doors on June 30, 1943, equally a consequence of America's participation in Earth War II.

The Section was headed past Edward Bruce (1879 – 1943), Edward Rowan (1898 – 1946), and Forbes Watson (1880 – 1960). These three were non role of the established political bureaucracy, but came from artistic backgrounds. Bruce and Rowan were painters and Watson was an art critic. Thus they combined their skills to create an efficient creative sphere where new ideas could prosper. Bruce, the private responsible for first conceiving the Department, handled general policy and bureaucracy. Rowan dealt directly with the artists and provided artistic critiques and communication. Watson operated every bit the Section's publicist and art critic, promoting the organization in mag and paper articles and encouraging full general awareness of its programs.

Richard Sargent, Men at Remainder, Morrilton Postal service Office. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jonathan Glenn. Used with the permission of the United states Postal Service®. All rights reserved

Funding for the murals was established as a %-for-art plan. One percent of the price of new federal buildings was fix aside for the installation of artistic "embellishments." Thus, as new mail service offices were being congenital around the nation, 1% of their cost, averaging $600, was gear up bated for the installation of art into their customs.

The Section awarded jobs based on talent, not financial need, unlike other New Bargain Programs. Furthermore, some murals were awarded on the basis of anonymous competitions, thus eliminating favoritism and giving young, unknown artists opportunities to receive meaning commissions. The anonymity of the competition was bodacious because only unsigned designs were submitted to the juries. Sealed envelopes with the artist's name and contact data were taped to the back of each sketch. Once a winner had been determined, the identity of the artist was revealed. Unfortunately, well known artists quite often refused to enter the competitions stating that they were already recognized and their reputation adequately demonstrated their ability.

Such anonymity allowed for a wide diverseness of artists to be called. Of the 850 artists who won commissions for the Section, 162 of them were women, while 3 were African American [i]. Controversy however, arose concerning the political affiliations of winning artists. Due to the competition's anonymity, artists of every political organization were commissioned-not only democrats and republicans, but also those associated with communism, socialism, and other radical political parties.

Most competitions were regional contests, less than xv were national competitions. Once a specific federal building was called, the Section would engage a regional chairman, generally a museum or fine art schoolhouse manager, who afterwards formed a jury and organized the contest. To elicit artists, the jury mailed announcements, advertised in newspapers, and promoted the competition in the Department Bulletin, which reached over 8,500 artists effectually the nation. Over the course of nine years, xv,426 artists submitted 40,426 sketches in 190 competitions.

Artists could also receive commissions based on "runner-up" status within the competitions. If an creative person showed "exceptional promise" they would be given special consideration if a federal building within the creative person's local was constructed. Thus, an artist could forgo the competition on the basis of previous designs. A new sketch would need to be equanimous that focused on the new mural site. This sketch would afterward exist submitted to a committee for approval and a contract fatigued up.

Mary Purser,How Happy was the Occasion, Clarksville Post Part. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jonathon Glenn Used with the permission of the U.s.a. Postal Service®. All rights reserved

The Department was quite stringent concerning the artistic fashion in which the murals were executed. Although non officially limiting compositions to one specific genre, The Section overwhelmingly favored the realism of the American Scene, consistently shying away from modernist works involving elements of cubism and abstraction. This stylistic preference practical to murals both painted and sculptured. Marlene Park and Gerald Markowtiz in their book, Autonomous Vistas: Mail service Offices and Public Fine art in the New Bargain,  contend that, "the Section wanted a contemporary American realism that was natural, authentic, and normative…On the whole, the Section believed that the public wanted recognizable and commonplace simply dignified images."[2] The Section desired piece of work that local residents could place with and understand in a readily accessible manner.

It was "strongly recommended" that an artist visit the town that would be receiving the mural. Thus, it was believed that direct communication with the community and the local population would help an artist in designing a scene that accurately represented the locale. Still, long-distance travel within the Usa was expensive and difficult. Artists would often forgo this initial "suggestion" and rely instead on correspondence with community members and library enquiry to design a limerick that represented a particular customs. Quite ofttimes a mail office mural depicting the life of a particular community was composed by an artist who had never actually visited the area.

Artists who received commissions were contracted to create a mural for a specific federal building. These murals they created inside the studio and later installed in the building. The Department's contract involved a number of stages that the artist was required to complete before the final mural could be installed.

The outset official requirement was for an artist to submit a black and white sketch and a color sketch on the scale of one inch

Louis Freund, From Timber to Agronomics, Heber Springs Postal service Part. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jonathan Glenn.Used with the permission of the U.s. Postal Service®. All rights reserved

to i human foot to the Section for initial pattern blessing. The Section recommended that artists submit four sketched ideas, thus increasing the likelihood that i would be approved for the edifice in question. The color sketch was accounted the almost of import stage because it was upon this pattern that competitions were judged and contracts signed. The color sketch was by and large the just phase in the multi-step process in which the Section saw the artist's actual work, the others consisting of photographs of the compositions. The selected color sketch was oft critiqued by Edward Rowan, the Art Ambassador of The Section. He generally urged artists to make small adjustments to their composition and/or their portrayal of the local community.

The 2d stage was of the submission of a "drawing" of the proposed landscape. This "cartoon" varied with the medium of the proposed mural. For painted murals, a to-scale blackness and white cartoon of the composition was created. Artists would so photograph this cartoon and send the snapshot to the Section. For sculptured murals, a clay model or maquette was submitted to the Section for approval. This step was basically the intermediate stage, occupying the position betwixt the pocket-size scale sketch and the bodily mural. Artists often emphasized the linear aspects of the cartoon composition because it was those features that were transferred from the drawing to the actual landscape. Again, Edward Rowan would provide artistic advice, critiquing aspects such every bit modeling, perspective, and overall composition.

The logistics of each project was supervised by the Section via mail. The Department staff of 19 met regularly and submitted personal critiques of the works in progress; the sheer book of correspondence is remarkable because that for each mural there exists approximately sixty pieces of correspondence. Notwithstanding, it was Edward Rowan who direct corresponded with the artists.

John Tazewell Robertson,Peach Growing, Nashville Post Role. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jonathan Glenn. Used with the permission of the Us Postal Service®. All rights reserved

The third and last stage was the creation and installation of the landscape. The murals were created in the artist'southward studio and then transported to the post role. Installation of the mural was mostly carried out by the artists themselves or under their specific instructions.

Artists were paid in installments at the completion of each phase in the landscape'southward cosmos. The first and smallest payment was paid upon the approval of the initial sketch, the second when the cartoon or clay model/maquette was canonical, and the third and largest payment was dispersed once the mural was installed and the postmaster had written to the Section confirming the installation. Artists were deputed for diverse amounts, in Arkansas, the commissions ranged from $470 to $760. Basically, the Department attempted to pay approximately $ten per square pes.

It is within this context that twenty-one murals were deputed for Arkansas. Twenty were installed and nineteen still exist. These existing nineteen consist of seventeen painted murals and two sculptured compositions.

[1] Barbara Melosh, Engendering Culture: Manhood and Womanhood in New Deal Public Fine art and Theater. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, c.1991) 220.

[two]Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Mail service Offices and Public Art in the New Deal . (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984) 125.

All images of the murals on this site are used with the permission of the United States Postal Service®. All rights reserved

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