- Post Office Mural - Ames IALowell Houser painted this oil on canvas mural, entitled "The Evolution of Corn," in 1938 with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Houser was a local Iowa artist who studied for a number of years in Mexico, where he was taken with Aztec sculptures he encountered in museums there, which accounts for this mural's style. "In an oral history interview with the artist dated July 31, 1964, he discusses the conception and execution of the mural. Houser states that he came up with the concept that the cultivation of corn was historically Maya 'or at least, ancient American...