Samuel Cashwan Sites

The Board of Water and Light Dye Conditioning Plant in Lansing, Michigan contains multiple examples of New Deal artwork, including: "Aquarius," a limestone relief created in 1938-39 by Samuel Cashwan. The massive work is located above the building's front entrance.

Sculpted by Samuel Cashwan in 1938 for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), "Pioneer Mother" is a deco modern-style sculpture on the south side of the Clare High School, now the Clare Middle School. It has the appearance of a madonna and child, with the mother's face elongated and the child clinging to her breast. It was recently conserved and remains outside the school.

"Created through the WPA/FAP programs and a gift from the Class of 1938, this limestone marker" at MSU's Abbot Road entrance "welcomes visitors and students to the MSU campus, then known as Michigan State College. The classical column, reinterpreted in the Art Deco style of the 1930s, along with the man, horse and woman with a sheaf of wheat, recall MSU’s agricultural heritage."

"Samuel Cashwan, supervisor of the Michigan Sculpture Program for the WPA, designed the Art Deco limestone reliefs framing the southwest entrance. They depict images of dance and performance, such as children dancing to the beat of drums." Also featured on this post are four reliefs, located on the building's southeast corner.

Samuel Cashwan completed this cast concrete sculpture, entitled "Three Musicians," in 1940, with funding from the WPA Federal Art Program. From the Kresge Art Museum New Deal Walking Tour website: "The Three Musicians is all that remains of a pair of large angular cast-concrete sculptural groupings that flanked the streamlined 1930s MSU Band Shell. The Cubist sculpture, which depicts a bass player, drummer, and saxophonist, was moved to its present site when the band shell was destroyed in 1959." (https://artmuseum.msu.edu/wpa/WPA/pages/music.htm)

"This PWA building by architect Ralph R. Calder, built in memory of Richard M. Olin, M.D., was considered “modern in every detail.” Although additions to the building were made in 1956 and 1969, the bulky massing, textural variety, and minimalist limestone trim distinguish this building from others nearby. Samuel Cashwan designed the twelve symbolic reliefs that frame the main entryway. He chose the fitting subject of the healing arts, framing the building’s name with two Greek goddesses of health, Panacea and Hygeia. The two pilasters display themes from modern medicine. On the left, in descending order, they are “Medical Magic,”...