Richard Haines Sites

"Oil-on-canvas murals, painted in 1935-1936, are located on the east and west walls of the lobby. Artists J. Ward Lockwood and Richard Haines received the commissions through a post office mural project awarded by the U.S. Treasury Department's Painting and Sculpture Section. "Pioneers in Kansas," the mural by Lockwood (a Kansas native), is a collage of images associated with role and evolution of the Postal Service during the settlement of the western United States. A stagecoach laden with mail and passengers marks the center of the canvas, with the other images radiating around it. A Pony Express rider and a Native...

Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "The Picnic" painted by Richard Haines in 1942.

The post office contains a 1942 Section of Fine Arts mural "Coon Hunt" painted by Richard Haines in 1942. Richard Haines was born in Iowa in 1906 and chose realistic, contemporary subjects that directly related to the life of the people in the communities where his murals were located.  In Coon Hunt, he portrayed a group of men hunting raccoons at night by lantern with dogs.  The intensity of the hunters and dogs is palpable, though some of the hunters and dogs are looking around, seemingly wondering if the coon has escaped.  The hunter to the far left has a wild-eyed...

Mural entitled "Iowa Farming" painted in 1937 by Richard Haines. "Richard Haines was born here in 1906. His parents, Fred and Hattie, were pioneer farmers at the turn of the century and Richard began sketching scenes of cows and the countryside as a child. His natural born skills were sufficient to win him a scholarship at the Minneapolis School of Art, where, upon graduation, he was hired as a professor. Haines was not content with the limited artistic styles offered there, so he enrolled in the L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in France... As a result of his exposure to the fine arts...

The historic post office in Hastings, Minnesota houses an example of New Deal artwork: a Section of Fine Arts-commissioned mural entitled "Arrival of Fall Catalogue." The work, by Richard Haines, was completed in 1938.

This tempera mural "Skid Row" by Richard Haines was a winner of the Treasury Section's 48-State Post Office Mural Competition. "When Section officials in Washington, D.C., chose Minneapolis artist Richard Haines to paint a mural for the new post office in Shelton, Washington, the local community openly complained about the selection. Haines tried to make the best of the situation and his logging-themed, egg tempera mural, “The Skid Road,” was actually the only one in the state completed on site. “Whenever possible,” he commented, “I feel painting of the murals on the spot should be encouraged. It is an enlightening experience...