A Daughter Remembers: The Work and Lessons of Muralist Richard Correll

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Leslie Correll writes from Oakland about her father:

 

Richard Correll, taking a a rare break from painting.


Richard Correll, taking a a rare break from painting. Leslie Correll

Richard V. (Dick) Correll was on the Federal Art Project (FAP) in Seattle, specializing in printmaking, but he also produced drawings, gouache paintings, and two murals for a high school in Arlington, Washington. He is especially noted for his suite of prints created for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on the American folk hero, Paul Bunyan. (One of the murals in Arlington features Bunyan creating the Columbia River.)
Correll, a natural artist from early childhood, was largely self-taught. However, the WPA offered a rich opportunity for all artists to share techniques and ideas with one another, and during this period, Correll’s technique matured and crystalized. Following the WPA years, he earned a living as a commercial artist in the book publishing and advertising fields in Seattle, New York City, and San Francisco, while producing a large body of fine art in his own time. He was long associated with the Graphic Arts Workshop of San Francisco. Correll has been described as “one of the leading masters of printmaking in the West.” Although never formally a teacher, Correll’s masterful command of technique and powerful, rhythmic composition blended with compassionate, humanistic subject matter influenced and inspired many of the younger generation of West Coast printmakers and graphic artists.
A permanent archive of Correll’s work has been established at the University of Washington-Libraries Special Collections in Seattle. Correll’s artwork, including many prints from the WPA era, is in many museums, public institutions, and private collections. For further information, please see www.richardvcorrell.com.

 

 

Leslie Correll is an artist in three dimensional/mixed media, and is the editor of the book, Richard V. Correll: Prints and Drawings. 

Notes from the Field: Teaching New Deal Archaeology

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CCC'ers doing excavation work at the Sugar Run Mound and Village in Western Pennsylvania.


CCC’ers doing excavation work at the Sugar Run Mound and Village in Western Pennsylvania.  Source
Photo Credit: Mark McConaughy New Deal Archaeology, 2015

Glory-June Greiff writes us from Indiana:

 

We all know that the New Deal changed the landscape. It also preserved it, celebrating America’s history even as it was making history. Taking office in 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pledged a New Deal for America by swiftly enacting a plethora of alphabet agencies, including a series of ambitious federal work relief programs. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed parks and aided conservation. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its predessors built roads, schools, airports, infrastructure and so much more. And, these New Deal programs also fundamentally transformed American archaeology.

 

WPA and CCC archaeology assistants (some of who went on to become archaeologists themselves) worked in nearly all the lower 48 states, patiently peeling back layers of dirt to reveal secrets of the country’s past absent from standard history books. Ordinary men and women from all walks of life undertook the task of excavating places of national and regional significance, such as Jamestown, Yorktown, Daniel Boone’s birthplace, and a range of colonial-era forts. Perhaps even more importantly, work relief archaeologists explored and uncovered camp sites, villages, towns, and mounds of the pre-Columbian American Indians, whose history was then little-known. In Indiana, WPA workers toiled at a site known as Angel Mounds under the supervision of archeologist Glen Black. Today, Angel Mounds is a State Historic Site.

 

Last month, in the laboratory at Indiana University named for Black, Dr. Bernard K. Means, Instructor of Anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University, gave a public lecture entitled, “When Americans Dug Their Past: Doing Archaeology During the Great Depression,” part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ semester-long initiative, “Themester 2015: Work: The Nature of Labor on a Changing World.” A themester combines academic courses, public lectures, exhibits, film screenings, and other events with the intent of engaging students and the community at large in a collective learning experience about a timely, even urgent, issue. Dr. Means discussed with some wonderment the work of these untrained assistants who provided us with the foundation for so much knowledge, keeping their legacy alive even as they did so for our historical heritage at large.

 

 

 

 

 

Glory-June Greiff is a public historian, writer, and preservation activist based in Indianapolis. She began her research on the New Deal in Indiana over thirty years ago and continues to make new discoveries every year. In the early 1990s she served as statewide director of Indiana’s Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) survey, which provided the foundation for her book Remembrance, Faith and Fancy: Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana (Indiana Historical Society, 2005). Her most recent publication is People, Parks, and Perceptions: A History and Appreciation of Indiana State Parks, which emphasizes the role of the CCC and WPA in developing our state parks and creating our public perception of how such a park should appear. A native of Hudson Lake in northern Indiana, Greiff earned a B.S. in Radio-Television/English from Butler University and worked several years on the air in radio; she holds a master’s degree in Public History from Indiana University. She is also a professional narrator and a performer of song and story.

Notes from the Field: A Reunion for Indiana CCC’ers

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Glory-June Greiff writes us from Indiana:

 

Pokagon’s original gatehouse, soon to be a CCC mini-museum with artifacts and displays.


Pokagon’s original gatehouse, soon to be a CCC mini-museum with artifacts and displays.
Photo Credit: Glory-June Greiff Creative Commons

For 62 years, on the last Sunday in July, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) veterans have been coming to Indiana’s Pokagon State Park, in the far northeast corner of the state, for the oldest continuous CCC reunion in the country. Twenty years after the CCC was established in the depths of the Depression, the late Roger Woodcock, and others who had worked at Pokagon, sought the park’s help in setting up a reunion. Company 556, initially formed in the fall of 1933 for a camp at Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan, finished its work there (alas, virtually all gone today) and established Camp SP-7 at Pokagon the following year. Virtually all the park’s present landscaping and buildings–including the old gatehouse, the saddle barn, the dining hall and much of the group camp, the bath house, the beach itself, and overnight cabins near the inn–are the work of the CCC, which remained in the park until January 1942. Most of Pokagon State Park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. I wrote that nomination in the 1990s at the behest of the CCC veterans.

 

There were two veterans present at this year’s July 26 reunion. (A third, bless him, had intended to come, but had a fall and couldn’t make it.) Interpretive naturalist Fred Wooley, who retired this spring after 35 years, returned to emcee the program. Fred has left a wonderful legacy: Among other projects, his cherished dream of marking the location of every building on the site where the CCC camp was, including interpretive signage for each, has been realized. And soon, the beautiful gatehouse built by these boys so long ago, later abandoned owing to changing traffic patterns, will become a mini museum dedicated to them. The legacy lives on.

 

 

 

Glory-June Greiff is a public historian, writer, and preservation activist based in Indianapolis. She began her research on the New Deal in Indiana over thirty years ago and continues to make new discoveries every year. In the early 1990s she served as statewide director of Indiana’s Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) survey, which provided the foundation for her book Remembrance, Faith and Fancy: Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana (Indiana Historical Society, 2005). Her most recent publication is People, Parks, and Perceptions: A History and Appreciation of Indiana State Parks, which emphasizes the role of the CCC and WPA in developing our state parks and creating our public perception of how such a park should appear. A native of Hudson Lake in northern Indiana, Greiff earned a B.S. in Radio-Television/English from Butler University and worked several years on the air in radio; she holds a master’s degree in Public History from Indiana University. She is also a professional narrator and a performer of song and story.

 

 

Colorado New Deal Sites Named National Historic Landmarks

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The Red Rocks Amphitheatre, a CCC Project


The Red Rocks Amphitheatre, a CCC Project  Source City and County of Denver

On Tuesday, August 4, the United States Department of Interior and National Park Service announced the placement of Mount Morrison CCC Camp and Red Rock’s Amphitheatre on the register of National Historic Landmarks (NHL). A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, or object officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding degree of historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the country’s National Register of Historic Places, only about 2,500 are recognized as National Historic Landmarks. Mount Morrison and Red Rocks Amphitheatre are Colorado’s 25th National Historic Landmark and the first New Deal-era historic sites to receive NHL listing in the Centennial State. “It’s nice because it recognizes the years and years of work that went into building the amphitheater and making the park into the really special place it is,” said Red Rocks spokesman Brian Kitts. The 14-year effort to designate was spearheaded by the not-for-profit Friends of Red Rocks and received endorsements from musicians, politicians, and historians across the country.

 

Camp SP-13-C opened at Mount Morrison in 1935 and closed in 1942. CCC Company 1848 and Veterans’ Company 1860 lived here while working on projects in nearby Mountain Parks and especially on Red Rocks Amphitheatre. In January 1943, the camp was turned over to the City of Denver and used by Boy Scout troops and other groups. The CCC Camp is presently the maintenance headquarters for Denver Mountain Parks and most of the buildings are used for storage. 14 of the original 15 CCC buildings remain, making it one of the most intact Civilian Conservation Corps camps remaining in the United States. The Recreation Hall on site houses a small museum dedicated to the CCC, with artifacts and memorabilia on display thanks to the efforts of NACCCA Alumni Chapter 7, who collected the materials.

 

According to NPS officials, both the Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Mount Morrison CCC Camp retain a significant amount of their historical resources. Red Rocks Park and Mount Morrison CCC Camp are located 25 minutes from downtown Denver. The camp is open to the public only by appointment, in season. Email [email protected] to arrange a visit or call the office at (720) 865-0900.

 

Learn more about the CCC in Colorado here: https://coloradoccc.org/

Article sources: https://www.thedenverchannel.com/lifestyle/discover-colorado/red-rocks-and-mount-morrison-civilian-conservation-corps-camp-named-national-historic-landmark

https://www.denverpost.com/golden/ci_27589007/red-rocks-conservation-corps-camp-up-national-historic-landmark

 

Robert Krause is an Historic Preservation Planner with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in United States History from the University of Mississippi in 2010, with emphases in Environmental and Public History. Dr. Krause has worked as a curator, historian, and preservationist in federal, state, and local government agencies since 2001. Krause grew up in Bozeman, Montana, and his grandfather and great-uncle were enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

CCC Project at Pocahontas State Park Historic District Added to the Virginia State Registry

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Pocahontas State Park


Pocahontas State Park  SourceImperial Multimedia, 2015

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) recently named the 7600-acre Pocahontas State Park, one of Virginia’s largest Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) projects, to the Virginia Landmarks Registry (VLR). The DHR said that all of the park, along with two other new listings in the VLR, will be forwarded to the National Park Service for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

 

Originally known as Swift Creek Recreational Demonstration Area (RDA), Pocahontas State Park was just one of two RDAs completed in the state as part of the larger Federal Emergency Land Relief Program, initiated in 1934. The park, located twenty miles from Richmond, was “the first recreational park in the Richmond-Petersburg-Hopewell area.” As the Petersburg Progress-Index reports, according to the DHR, Pocahontas State Park is unique in Virginia as the “only state park specifically designed for use by large groups.” Come visit–and bring your friends!

 

 

This post was submitted by Robert Krause, an Historic Preservation Planner with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in United States History from the University of Mississippi in 2010, with an emphasis on Environmental and Public History. Dr. Krause has worked as a curator, historian, and preservationist in federal, state, and local government agencies since 2001. Krause grew up in Bozeman, Montana, and his grandfather and great-uncle were enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Old Santa Fe Trail Building Now Open to the Public

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Interior courtyard of the Old Santa Fe Building  Source National Park Service, 2012

After being closed for two decades, and a year after its 75th Anniversary, the Old Santa Fe Trail Building—the former home of the Southwest Regional Office of the National Park Service (NPS)—is again open to the public. Constructed in the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style and completed in 1939, the office was closed to the public after the NPS reorganized and the regional office was moved to Denver.

 

But in 2013, a group of dedicated preservation advocates and volunteers, headed by the National New Deal Preservation Association, coordinated efforts to re-open the building and provide information and tours to the public. As the Santa Fe New Mexican recently noted, Kathy Flynn, Executive Director of the National New Deal Preservation Association, has a broader vision for the building. “We would like to see the building become a joint CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] and WPA [Works Progress Administration] museum or library or some combination,” said Flynn, a Santa Fe resident. “There is nothing in the nation as far as we know where the CCC and WPA, the two big programs during the New Deal, are put together.”

 

At 24,000 square feet, the Park Service’s former Southwest Regional Office is perhaps the largest adobe office building in the country, according to research files of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation. The major work force came from CCC Camp #833 based in Santa Fe, while the Works Progress Administration was responsible for artworks and other furnishings. Among the other CCC accomplishments in this area were the rock lining along the Santa Fe River through the city, the lodge and shelters at Hyde Park, and Bandelier National Monument’s roads, buildings, and the furniture inside those dozens of buildings.

 

Most of the 200 workers were men aged 17 to 23 from local Hispanic families. For $30 per month, and room and board, the men hand-mixed and formed more than 280,000 adobe bricks for the walls that are between two and five feet thick. They also hand-peeled the pine vigas and made heavy, intricately carved furniture for the offices. Much of the earth for the adobe bricks came from the excavation for the building. Foundation stone was quarried near Canyon Road. Ponderosa pine logs for vigas and corbels came from the CCC camp in Hyde Memorial State Park. Flagstone for the floors in the lobby and conference room, and the paving under the courtyard portáles, came from a Pecos ranch. Funding came from the WPA Federal Art Project for art including ceramic vessels by Maria and Julian Martinez of San Ildefonso Pueblo, Lela Gutierrez and Eulogia Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo, and Agapita Quintana of Cochiti Pueblo; paintings by Victor Higgins and E. Boyd; nearly 50 rugs, most Navajo-made; etchings by Gene Kloss; and lithographs by B.J.O. Nordfeldt. The Park Service’s regional landscape architect, Harvey Cornell, designed the site and courtyard.

 

Located at 1100 Old Santa Fe Trail, The Old Santa Fe Trail Building is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Guided tours are available by appointment. Those wishing to volunteer at the building can call the volunteer program managers at Pecos National Historical Park at 505-757-7211. Come visit—and support—this New Deal treasure!

 

 

This post was submitted by Robert Krause, an Historic Preservation Planner with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in United States History from the University of Mississippi in 2010, with an emphasis in Environmental and Public History. Dr. Krause has worked as a curator, historian, and preservationist in federal, state, and local government agencies since 2001. Krause grew up in Bozeman, Montana, and his grandfather and great-uncle were enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Help Us Meet a $50,000 Challenge

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Your tax-deductible donation to the Living New Deal will be matched dollar for dollar between now and the end of 2013.  Find out more about our challenge grant and how

fdr-we-need-you-150you can help. With your support The Living New Deal is documenting the stories, art, architecture, and lessons of the New Deal. Through our website, tours, lectures, and publications, we’re bringing to light what our country once did to rebuild America and help working Americans in hard times.  Our hope is that if enough Americans understand what was done then, they would see that, working together, we could do it again.

Another New Deal Building Falls to the Wrecking Ball

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Rogers County Courthouse Demolition (Oklahoma)

Rogers County Courthouse, OK
Rogers County Courthouse Demolition
(Oklahoma)

The Rogers County Courthouse in Claremore, Oklahoma, built by the New Deal in 1937, was recently demolished to make way for a new courthouse on the same site.  We found this photo by Jimmy Emerson on Flicker.  We welcome anyone with further information on the building or its demolition to contact the Living New Deal.  While we hate to see New Deal buildings fall to the wreckers, we should recall that this one served its purpose with dignity for 80 years.

Robert Reich on Closing the Income Gap

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Robert Reich, Living New Deal board member, has been getting a lot of attention lately, thanks to his new film, Inequality for All.  He has been interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and by Bill Moyers on Moyers & Company.  Moyers asked Reich: what can we do to fix our economy?  Reich has a clear plan of action — which he lays out in the Moyers video — to ensure there is “upward mobility again, in our society and in our economy.” It sounds a lot like a New New Deal.  He also believes that only political engagement by all Americans will help “change the rules” that created the widening income gap between the top one percent and everyone else, which degrades our democracy and undermines the economy.  Stagnant wages and piling up of consumer debt was a major cause of the Great Recession (whose effects we are still living with). Reich has set up a “take action” area on the film’s website, where he is promoting actions we can take to improve the future health of America’s economy.