William C. Palmer Sites

The Clinton Federal Building (north) was originally the US Post Office Department headquarters, completed under the New Deal in 1934.  It contains a wealth of New Deal artworks commissioned and paid for by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts – 25 murals and 22 sculptural elements (12 bas-reliefs, 2 statues, 8 wood medallions) – featuring postal themes. William C. Palmer painted two large (7' x 13.5') murals for the Post Office Building: "Covered Wagon Attacked by Indians" and "Mail Coach Attacked by Bandits" (1937). It must be said that Palmer's idea of the Wild West was standard popular mythology and the...

The mural "Purchase of Land and Modern Tilling of the Soil," by William C. Palmer, was completed with New Deal funds in 1938. It is viewable in the lobby of the historic Arlington, Massachusetts Branch post office.

William C. Palmer painted a three panel mural entitled "Iowa Landscape" for the Monticello post office in 1939-1940. He was given this commission based on his entries in a big ($29,000) St. Louis competition. The postman's creed is in the left panel, the Iowa state motto in the center, and the state song of Iowa in the right.