Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA) Sites

The oil-on-canvas mural "Joseph DeFord and His Friends Building the First Cabin" was painted with federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds. The work was installed in the lobby of Bluffton's historic post office building in 1941.

The post office contains a mural by Carl Nyquist, installed in 1941, "Picking Cotton." The mural is 13 feet 6 inches wide and 5 feet high. "The mural, a reflection of the long, flat cotton fields of the area, is an outstanding example of representational art, from the light brown earth color to the clothes the people are wearing...Perhaps the mural's relationship to history can best be found in the clothing of the individuals. The long cotton dresses were still worn by women in the fields during the early 1930s. This appears to be the time depicted in the mural....

The mural "Daniel Boone on a Hunting Trip to Watauga County" was commissioned by the federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Painted by Alan Tompkins, it was installed in Boone, North Carolina's historic downtown post office building in 1940.

The Section of Fine Arts-funded mural "Boonville Beginnings" was painted by Ida Ableman and installed in the lobby of the Boonville, Indiana post office in 1941. The size of the mural is 12'7" x 5'6" and the medium is casein tempera on canvas.

The post office in Boonville, New York, built in 1937, is home to a mural by painted by the sisters Suzanne and Lucerne McCullough of New York City. It depicts a 19th century scene on the Black River Canal and is titled  “Black River Canal—1845.” It was paid for by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.  

The mural "Skating on Bonaparte's Pond," by Avery Johnson, was painted in 1940 with Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds.

New Deal mural "Texas Immigrant" painted by Gordon Grant in 1939.

A Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Arrival of the Rural Mail" was painted by Robert Allaway and installed in the lobby of the Breckenridge, Minnesota post office in 1938.

The post office contains a 4' x 24' 1938 Section of Fine Arts oil-on-canvas mural by Ernest Norling entitled "Northwest Logging." The mural was restored in 1994-95. "Norling completed two Washington State Post Office murals during the New Deal period, one in Bremerton and one in Prosser. He also painted documentary images of the state's CCC camps for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). During an oral history interview in 1964, Norling reflected on his knowledge of the logging industry and how that helped him with the mural: "I knew pretty well the lumbering industry. I'd work when I went to high...

The lobby of the historic Bridgeport, Ohio post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: the oil-on-canvas painting ,"Ohio Harvest," was created by Richard Kenah in 1940. It was a winner of the Treasury Department's 48-State Post Office Competition.

The historic 1938 post office in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania housed an example of New Deal artwork: "Smelting," painted by Walter Alton Carnelli in 1941. The mural was destroyed in 1965, but a photo reproduction and descriptive plaque are present.

Arthur Getz painted this oil on canvas mural, entitled "Harvest," in 1941 with Treasury Section of Fine Arts funding. Getz was also a prolific contributor to the New Yorker, drawing over 200 covers between 1936 and his death in 1996. 

The historic post office in Bronxville, New York contains a Section of Fine Arts mural painted by John Sloan in 1939 titled "The Arrival of the First Mail in Bronxville in 1846."

The post office contains a 1936 Section of Fine Arts mural "Showing the People in the Early Days Transferring from Stagecoach to Boat" painted by Richard Lahey. Brownsville, PA is located on the Monongahela River in southwest Pennsylvania and this mural shows early transportation and the transfer of people from the stagecoach to steamboat. The women are dressed in their finest. Richard Lahey was born in New Jersey and studied at the Student’s Art League of New York, taught at the Minneapolis School of Art, the Student’s Art League, Goucher College, and the Corcoran in Washington, DC.

The historic post office in Buchanan, Michigan houses an example of New Deal artwork: "Production," a 1941 Treasury of Fine Arts-commissioned tempera mural by Gertrude Goodrich.

This 5' x 12' egg tempera-on-canvas mural entitled "Snake River Ferry"was  painted by Richard Guy Walton in 1941. "Compiled from “The Buhl Herald” archives by James H. Barker The next time you’re in the Buhl post office, if you look just above the postmaster’s door you’ll see a mural. Have you ever wondered how it got there or what it characterizes? Surprisingly, the story goes back to “Black Friday”, the stock market crash of 1929, which ushered in the great depression. Newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt, attempting to counteract the downward financial spiral, promoted his “New Deal,” a vast public works program designed...

The oil-on-canvas mural entitled “Cotton Pickers” was painted by Caroline Rohland in 1939. "The mural was removed to the Postmaster’s office when the lobby was renovated in the 1970′s. He is glad to show it off.”

The mural "View of Burgettstown" was commissioned by the federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts and installed in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania's historic post office building in 1942.

The historic Burley post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: an oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Pioneers on the Oregon Trail along the Snake River," painted by Elizabeth Lochrie in 1938. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The post office contains a Section of Fine Arts mural "Pioneer Home in Bushnell" painted by Reva Jackman in 1939.  

The historic Caldwell post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: the tempera mural "Cowboys Driving Cattle," painted by Kenneth Evett under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts in 1941.

The 5' x 14' tempera-on-canvas mural entitled "Hog Raising," located in the historic Caledonia post office, was completed by Edmund Lewandowski (1914-1998) in 1942 for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It depicts a farm scene of three men shoveling corn to pigs. Caledonia postmaster Charles Dorival suggested that the mural depict some kind of farm scene, believing that it represented, in the words of a contemporaneous article in the local paper, The Argus, "the most general activity of farmers engaged in hog raising in this area. Colors dominant in the mural are of a green and yellow quality and were selected...

The historic post office in California, Pennsylvania houses an example of New Deal artwork: "Monongahela River," an oil-on-canvas mural completed in 1939 by Saul Berman. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The mural "Copper Mining in Calumet" by Joe Lasker was commissioned by the federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts and installed in Calumet, Michigan's historic post office building in 1941. After a long and successful career the artist passed away in 2015.

The post office contains a Section of Fine Arts mural by Douglas Nicholson, Beginning of a New World, 1941, Egg Tempera on Wall. "A California artist, Nicholson traveled to Washington to complete the mural in person. Approximately 5' x 13' in size, the piece highlights the land and its physical and human resources including lumber, dairying, agriculture and fishing. Section administrators in Washington D.C. were not overly impressed with the mural and encouraged Nicholson to make many changes." (https://depts.washington.edu)

The post office contains a 1941 Section of Fine Arts mural by Samuel F. Hershey entitled "Pride of Cambridge City." Mural showing the agriculture basis of Cambridge City with a man controlling a spirited hose in the center surrounded by workers feeding hogs, cattle, and corn, with machines and manufacturing in the background. Samuel F. Hershey was unusual for an artist in that he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Boston Museum School of Art, and the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, including influences by members Aldro Hibbard and William Lester Stevens. He taught at Harvard...

Seymour Fogel painted this oil on canvas mural, entitled "People of the Soil," in 1940 with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It is viewable in the Cambridge post office lobby.   "People of the Soil" is "a Regionalist work in both its subject matter and its perspective. The mural, which depicts a family of Minnesota agriculturalists, does not aim to achieve a journalistic fidelity to reality. Instead, it presents us with the kind of rural idyll we often see in Grant Wood’s paintings; it presents us with an idealized view of rural life in 1930s Minnesota. "In this piece, we...

The Camden post office contains a 1938 Treasury Section of Fine Arts mural by John H. Fyfe entitled "Mail Delivery to Tranquility - The first post office in Benton County."

The historic post office in Camilla, Georgia houses an example of New Deal artwork: a Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Theme of the South," painted in 1942 by Laura G. Douglas.

The historic post office building in Canajoharie, New York features a New Deal-funded Section of Fine Arts mural painted by Anatol Shulkin. Titled "Invention of the Paper Bag in Canajoharie," the mural was installed in the post office lobby in 1942.

Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "The Onion Fields" painted in 1942 by Alison Mason Kingsbury. "It was a piece that valorized the work of the local onion workers, many of whom where immigrants from Russia, and was aptly titled The Onion Fields. Its subjects, a male and a female farmer, are a clear departure from the artist's earlier figures, filled out as they were in a stocky body types reminiscent of both Mexican and Soviet art." (https://rmc.library.cornell.edu)

The post office in Canoga Park, CA, is graced by a large oil-on-canvas mural by the artist Maynard Dixon, painted in 1941. The mural was commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts of the Federal Works Agency (which had previously been part of the Treasury Department). Titled "Palomino Ponies," the mural depicts several galloping horses and a rider.  Dixon was one of the most well-known painters of the American West. "Palomino Ponies"—Dixon's last public mural project—is registered as a National Landmark by the National Historical Society. Note: Established in 1939, the Section of Fine Arts succeeded the Treasury Section of Painting and...

The 1937 mural "Beatty's Barns," created for the then-new Canonsburg post office, was painted by Peter Blume for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. In 1937, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described the mural's unveiling as "a detailed, realistic piece of down-at-the-heel farmscape which the layman can readily understand. In fact, the mural's popularity is due, probably, to the familiarity of its objects--a ramshackle farmhouse, a broken fence, a disintegrating automobile, and so on." Eleanor Roosevelt admired the original sketch so much that she hung it in the White House.

The post office contains a 1937 Section of Fine Arts mural by Ernest Fiene. The mural "Paul Revere – 1801″ celebrates Paul Revere's copper industry in Canton.

The post office contains a Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Winter Landscape" painted by Jessie Hull Mayer in 1940.

The Canyon, Texas post office mural "Strays," painted by Francis Ankrom, was sponsored by the Section of Fine Arts. The mural, which was completed and installed in 1938, went through multiple iterations of subject matter proposals and sketches before "Strays" was finalized. Project folders at the National Archives in College Park, MD show that Ankrom had sketched the following alternative ideas for the Canyon post office mural: "In Defense of the Mail," "Rout in Palo Duro," and "Onward Texas." These alternative visions are presented below.

The post office contains a Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Service to the Farmer" painted by Davenport Griffen in 1939.

The historic Caro, Michigan post office contains a Section of Fine Arts tempera mural entitled "Mail on the Farm," painted by David Fredenthal in 1941.

The historic post office in Carrollton, Alabama houses an example of New Deal artwork: "Farm Scene with Senator Bankhead," a mural painted by Stuart R. Purser. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The post office contains a Section of Fine Arts mural "Pioneers - Tilling the Soil and Building Log Cabin" painted by Karl Kelpe in 1938.