Arts Programs Sites

The Manchester, Iowa post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: "Iowa Farm Life," a mural painted by William E. Henning in 1938.

Minna Citron painted this mural, "Horse Swapping Day" in 1942; the project was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The historic Manheim post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: the 1938 Section of Fine Arts-funded oil painting titled "The First Orchestra in America" was painted by Theresa Bernstein. The artist can be seen in a 1993 video discussing the mural at the CUNY.edu link in the Source Notes below.

The historic post office in Manistique, Michigan houses an example of New Deal artwork: "Logging," an oil-on-canvas mural by David Fredenthal. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Hunters, Red and White" painted by Archie Musick for the Manitou Springs post office in 1942. A plaque near the mural reads: "Depression-era public art programs coincided with the heyday of Colorado Springs' art school, the Broadmoor Art Academy: Its students and teachers painted murals in federal buildings nationwide. For Manitou's post office mural competition, my father, Archie Musick, depicted the legend of Manitou's springs: 'the God Manitou in a fit of rage clubbing a quarrelsome chief.' His frieze of Indian-trapper life across the bottom of the submitted sketch was so popular with 'the brass in...

This oil on canvas "Landscape at Frogtown" was painted for the Mannington post office by Richard Zoellner in 1942. It was a winner of the Treasury Section's 48-State Post Office Mural Competition.

This mural "Rural Life" was painted by Conrad Buff, the Swiss born Landscape Painter. Unfortunately, it is currently missing.

The mural "Contemporary Life in Missouri" was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts for the then-new Marceline post office. It was completed in 1938. This is a dramatic mural depicting the work in this area of northern Missouri with extensive mining operations shown on the left, smoke billowing from the works, a large slag heap in the far background as well as behind the miners.  Farming is shown in the center and to the right of the mural, though the stumps of corn have a look of devastation.  Harvesting and shocks of corn are shown in the center and...

The mural "Chicksaw Family Making Pah Sho Fah" was commissioned by the federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts. The work was completed and installed in the lobby of the historic Marietta post office in 1942. The mural was restored twice, once in 1960 and again in 2006.  

The oil-on-canvas mural "Cattle Days" was painted in 1942 by Lew E. Davis for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. The mural hangs in the lobby of the historic post office in Marlow, Oklahoma. It shows four cowboys in a corral branding cattle. One is standing with a lasso and several cows. The other three are squatting down, holding a cow which is about to be branded.

"Pioneers Arriving in Marshall by Wagon Train" Henry Holmstrom painted this oil on canvas mural in 1938 for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It is viewable on the Marshall post office lobby.

The oil-on-canvas mural entitled "McLennan Looking for a Home" was painted by Jose Aceves in 1939. The work was funded by the Treasury Department Section of Fine Arts and still hangs in the lobby of the Mart, Texas post office.

The Martinez downtown post office contains an oil-on-canvas New Deal mural, "The Road to Eldorado" by noted California artists Edith Hamlin and Maynard Dixon. It was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts in 1939. The subject matter of the mural appears to be a selection of early settlers of Martinez, with the city and the Carquinez Strait in the background (at the edges), including a Californio (Indian?), prospector and sailor on the left and a businessman and town women on the right, with a postal rider in the middle (in buckskin).  The title seems deftly ironic, but not critical. F0r...

"The Arrival of the Mail" is a Section of Fine Arts mural completed by Alan Tompkins  in 1937 for the Martinsville post office. The size of the mural is 16' x 5'6" and the medium is oil on canvas.

The historic post office in Marysville, Ohio houses an example of New Deal artwork: a fresco entitled "The Farmer." The Treasury Section of Fine Arts commissioned the work, which was created by James Egleson, which was completed and installed in the post office lobby in 1940.

The oil-on-canvas mural "General Lafayette is Welcomed at Friendship Hill By Mr. and Mrs. Albert Gallatin on May 27, 1825" was painted with federal Treasury Department funds and mounted in the lobby of the historic Masontown, Pennsylvania post office.

The current Maumee post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: "Communication," an oil-on-canvas mural commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Created for the historic post office in the city, it has since been relocated to the current facility.

Oil on canvas entitled "Wisconsin Rural Scene" painted in 1940 by Peter Rotier. It depicts local farmer Maurice Ryan and his twin sons.

The McConnelsville post office houses an example of new Deal artwork: "Mail--the Connecting Link," an oil-on-canvas mural by Sally F. Haley. The 5' x 17' ork was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

This mural, "Early U.S. Post Village", painted by Karl Oberteuffer under the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, was completed in 1938. It was transferred to the new McKenzie post office building in 1988. Upon its installation, Oberteuffer wrote an acquaintance, "There were many who saw the mural, and all seemed to be pleased with it. All comments seemed to be favorable and the postmaster was obviously proud of it." (Tennessee Post Office Murals, p. 109)

The oil-on-canvas mural, "Golden Triangle of Trade," which hangs in the lobby of the historic branch post office in Medford, Massachusetts, was painted by Henry Billings in 1939. Often mistaken as a work created by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, the three-panel mural was actually commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, a separate agency that commissioned 'decorations' for federal facilities. The mural is one of more than 1,000 pieces of art created for post offices and other federal buildings during the New Deal era. Concerns have perennially emerged in Medford about the content of the work, one of...

The 1940 mural "Clearing the Land," by Lorin Thompson, was a winner of the Treasury Section's 48-State Post Office Competition. The work was installed in the Mercer, Pennsylvania post office and is still visible today.

The historic post office building in Middleburgh, New York houses an example of New Deal artwork: "Dance of the Hop Pickers," an oil and tempera mural painted by Mary Earley and installed in the post office lobby in 1941. The work was sponsored by the federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The post office contains a 1939 Section of Fine Arts mural by Raymond Redell entitled "Early Middlebury Mail." The mural depicts early mail delivery in the form of the stagecoach speeding past a farm family waving at the coach with passengers returning their waves. There is a lot of motion in the work with the theme being quite common in PO murals. Raymond Redell worked principally in Wisconsin with little known work otherwise.

The post office contains a mural by Marianne Appel entitled "Rural Highway" and painted in 1941. Appel won the commission in a competition held by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.  

An oil-on-canvas mural entitled “Lumberman Log-Rolling” was painted for the Milford, New Hampshire post office in 1940 by Philip Von Saltza.  Mr. Von Saltza received $700 for his efforts according to the project's contract dated April 15, 1940.  The mural was completed and installed by the end of August.

The post office contains a Section of Fine Arts mural "An Incident in the King Philip War, 1670" was painted by Joe Lasker and installed in 1941 and was "revivified" in 1991.

New Deal mural entitled "Logging in the Maine Woods" painted by John Beauchamp in 1942.

The post office contains a 1939 Section of Fine Arts mural by Elizabeth Tracy entitled "The Suffolk Resolves--Oppression and Revolt in the Colonies."

This oil-on-canvas mural entitled "1848, Fort Kearny, Protectorate on the Overland Trail, 1871" was painted by William E.L. Bunn, 1939. "Minden has the distinction of having perhaps the most ambitious and thoroughly researched of all of the post office murals in Nebraska. The mural, entitled "1848, Fort Kearny, Protectorate on the Overland Trail, 1871", depicts the history of Fort Kearney and the many people who passed through it. When the mural was commissioned, historic Fort Kearny was no longer in existence. Therefore, Bunn recreated a scene of fort buildings and representations of the travelers who passed by the fort through historic photographs,...

This Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Iowa Fair" was painted by Francis Robert White in 1938.

The oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Return from the Fields" was painted by Elof Wedin in 1938. Wedin also completed a post office mural in Litchfield, Minnesota. "If a picture is worth a thousand words, the six-foot by 12-foot oil on canvas mural on the north wall of the lobby of the Mobridge Post Office, “Return From The Fields” by Elof Wedin, speaks volumes. Dakota bluffs comprise the backdrop, and the muted images transport us back in time to a gentler era. You can hear the muffled footfalls of the big roan draft horse and the jangle of the harness as he is...

"Located at the Moline post office is a mural entitled "Ploughshare Manufacturing" by Edward Millman. Created in 1937, this mural is an “egg tempera on gesso” ... Born in Chicago in 1907, Edward Millman attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later became the chief illustrator for the Chicago Evening American. He is regarded as one the most productive Depression-era muralists in Illinois, creating post office murals in Decatur, Moline, and Chicago. The mural located in Moline--“Ploughshare Manufacturing”—has been described as “depict laborers…in a dramatic and dynamic scene where workers and machines almost struggle with each other”"

The post office contains a Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Products of Missouri" painted by James McCreery in 1939. McCreery painted a luminous painting of local farm products including fruits, vegetables and chickens. The whole work is multiple vignettes painted almost as isolated still-lifes, but which work well as a whole. The railroad tracks and wheel in the background emphasized the importance of railroads for the local economy. Little is known about James McCreery, unfortunately given the quality of this work. He was born in Berkeley, CA in 1901 and died in Brooklyn, NY in 1970.

The Section of Fine Arts oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Harvesting" depicts a farmer using a three-mule team to pull a threshing machine across a wheat field. Painted for the Monroeville post office by Arthur Leroy Bairnsfather in 1939, it was restored in 1985 by John Bertalan, a native of Birmingham. Bainsfather won an open competition conducted by the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture under contract to WPA.  He was paid $680. “A.L. Bairnsfather, of Birmingham, submitted three initial sketches to the Section after his invitation to do the Monroeville mural. The Section chose a harvesting scene even though Bairnsfather suggested to...

A Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Early Settlers Weighing Cotton" was painted in 1938 by William S. McCall. The work is installed in the historic post office in Montevallo, Alabama. "McCall, at the time from Jacksonville, Florida, received the invitation to do the Montevallo mural in 1938 on the basis of designs he had submitted for a competition in Miami. He immediately visited Montevallo and chose the theme of cotton and settlement of the region because,in his words, "Montevallo was a very important little town to the cotton industry of the State in the early days." The postmaster, in the...

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.

The historic post office in Monticello, Indiana a 1942 Section of Fine Arts mural by Marguerite Zorach entitled "Hay Making." The scene is that of an extended family “Making Hay”, loading cut and dried hay into the horse drawn cart with children playing in the foreground on either side, a young woman working alongside the men. The scene is completed by the farmland in the background. Although the scene is hard farm labor, the artist included a woman in the center of the work and 3 of the 4 children are girls, a female artist tending to include more women in...

The Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Harvest, the Annal of America" was painted by Leonard Ahneman and installed in the then-new Montpelier, Ohio post office in 1941.

Bert Mullins painted this mural, entitled "Rural Free Delivery," in 1939 with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It is viewable in the lobby.