• Post Office - Bolivar TN
    The red-brick Colonial Revival style post office was erected with WPA labor. (Van West, 2001). It contains a mural by Carl Nyquist, "Picking Cotton." Interestingly, Van West takes an almost opposite view of the accuracy of the mural from that Of Howard Hull, Tennessee Post Office Murals, 1996. (See entry for mural for Hull's perspective on the mural). Van West said of the mural: "While Nyquist's portrayal is plausible, it was misleading in terms of its depiction of race and gender roles" (p. 61). Van West identified the lack of head covering (and for that matter, protection from the sun!) as...
  • Post Office Mural - Bolivar TN
    The post office contains a mural by Carl Nyquist, installed in 1941, "Picking Cotton." The mural is 13 feet 6 inches wide and 5 feet high. "The mural, a reflection of the long, flat cotton fields of the area, is an outstanding example of representational art, from the light brown earth color to the clothes the people are wearing...Perhaps the mural's relationship to history can best be found in the clothing of the individuals. The long cotton dresses were still worn by women in the fields during the early 1930s. This appears to be the time depicted in the mural....