Completion Year: 1942

The Treasury Section of Fine Arts commissioned "the Wheelwright" painted by artist Daniel Rhodes in 1942 for the Clayton Branch Post Office in St. Louis, Missouri. The mural was removed from the post office in 1971 and relocated to the Des Moines Federal Courthouse, where it is currently on view.    

On April 5th, 1933, the day that the executive order forming the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was signed, officials of the U.S. Forest Service announced that they would select land near Cape Perpetua for one of the largest of the CCC camps in the Siuslaw National Forest. The site selected was approximately two miles south of Yachats just east of US Highway 101 on the banks of Cape Creek. Construction of the camp began in June 1933 with a crew of twenty-five local CCC recruits. With its completion, the number of CCC workers residing at Cape Creek Camp grew to...

After the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp in 1933 at the foot of Cape Perpetua, the young men began to develop the area currently known as the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area for public recreational use.  Their projects included a campground, a network of trails, the West Shelter observation point near the top of the cape, and a roadway to that elevation. Located in the Siuslaw National Forest, Cape Perpetua was among the first areas identified in Oregon for CCC work. In addition to the usual reforestation and conservation assignments associated with US Forest Service land, recreational development became a...

Currently the administrative center for the Oregon Department of Forestry, this site was first developed in 1936 as the maintenance camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which coordinated its activities with the State Forester's Office. From the first Civilian Conservation Corps camps in 1933 to their closure at the beginning of World War II, Oregon was second only to California in the number of camps west of the Mississippi.  Various state agencies supervised CCC work based on camp location and work program. The State Forester held jurisdiction over camps located in state forests or on private land. The state agency’s newsletter...

The Naval Research Laboratory has been a major research facility for the US Navy and military since it was founded at the instigation of Thomas Edison in 1923. It is located along the Potomac River at the southern tip of the District of Columbia. In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out repairs and made additions to the US Naval Research Laboratory.  Principle among these was a large addition to the field house.  The WPA teams also added roads, sewers and storm drains, and landscaping. Navy Bulletin No. 38 provides more specifics: “At the Naval Research Laboratory, Bellevue, D. C., the major...

The New Deal provided funding and labor for road improvements in Rock Creek Park.  The primary Depression-era addition to the parks road system was the long-contemplated construction of a direct connection between Bingham Drive and Daniel Road (Davis 1996, p. 94).  This project was undertaken in 1934-1935 by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers. A newspaper report notes that the CCC work in the park included, “Bingham Drive extended to make new entrance to park" (Daily News 1936) Contemporary photographic evidence suggests that the new section of Bingham Drive was constructed with a bituminous macadam pavement and that hand labor was used to smooth the road banks in...

The exterior of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) building is enhanced by several works of art commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts in 1938. The building is fronted on the east side by two monumental sculptures, entitled "Man Controlling Trade", by Michael Lantz (1942).  These allegorical sculptures, in Art Deco Style, depict a muscular man holding a rearing stallion, symbolizing the force of trade and the government’s role in regulating it.   

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in the Coronado National Forest during the 1930s. Coronado National Forest is discontinuous across southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico because the forested areas occur only on isolated mountain ranges called "Sky Islands" – a type of landscape similar to the Basin and Range in Nevada. Segments of the national forest are found in five counties: Cochise, Graham, Santa Cruz, Pima, and Pinal Counties in Arizona, and Hidalgo County in New Mexico. There were five CCC camps in  Coronado National Forest south-central Arizona: F-42 Tanque Verde in the Rincon Mountains; SP-11, Box Canyon...

The city of Tucson is flanked by two halves of the Saguaro National Park, which protects extensive areas of Sonoran Desert landscapes and the biodiverse communities of the Tucson Mountains and Rincon Mountains – two of the many "sky islands" of southern Arizona. The eastern district of Saguaro National Park was set aside as Saguaro National Monument by President Herbert Hoover in early 1933; today, it is known as the Saguaro NP - Rincon Mountain District (RMD).  The western district of the park was originally part of the Tucson Mountain Park, a county park created in 1929; the northern section of...

The city of Tucson is flanked by two halves of the Saguaro National Park, which protects extensive areas of Sonoran Desert landscapes and the biodiverse communities of the Tucson Mountains and Rincon Mountains – two of the many "sky islands" of southern Arizona. The eastern district of Saguaro National Park was set aside as Saguaro National Monument by President Herbert Hoover in early 1933; today, it is known as the Saguaro NP - Rincon Mountain District (RMD).  The western district of the park was originally part of the Tucson Mountain Park, a county park created in 1929; the northern section of...