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  • 1939 World's Fair Mural Study - Chicago IL
    Ilya Bolotowsky’s oil painting study for the Hall of Sciences mural at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York is today housed in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It is all that remains of Bolotowsky’s mural commissioned by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Arts Projects, as all murals made for the World’s Fair were destroyed at the Fair’s closure (Mahoney, p. 261). Bolotowsky is a generally overlooked pioneer of American abstract art and this work is a testament to the brilliance of his art, which he was given ample opportunity to practice through the New Deal. Thus,...
  • 1939 World's Fair: New Jersey Pavilion Mural - Flushing NY
    The New York Times wrote the following in 2003 in a retrospective article of New Jersey-based artist Michael Lenson: " moved to Newark and applied at the W.P.A. office on Halsey Street ... Soon, Mr. Lenson was designing and executing murals for the state W.P.A. program. He went on to become assistant state supervisor in charge of the other muralists in the agency. By the time the federal W.P.A. closed in 1943, Mr. Lenson had created six murals and supervised the execution of 15 more in New Jersey by other artists. He also made one mural in West Virginia." "Three of Mr. Lenson's...
  • Abbeville Museum Mural - Abbeville LA
    This mural "The Harvest" was originally painted for what was then the Abbeville post office by Louis Raynaud in 1939. Presently, it hangs in the Abbeville Museum downtown. "The Harvest shows men and women harvesting cotton, sugarcane, and muskrat hides.  Men gather cotton and tend the cane.  A couple prepares hides for drying.  Two male children do what children have always done when they were not pressed into premature labor to support mill families or sit for younger siblings-they hang around.  A man prepares to cut a clump of cane, and one woman waits, holding a bucket of water for the...
  • Abraham Lincoln High School Murals - Brooklyn NY
    Artist Seymour Fogel painted two murals, entitled "African Music and European Music" and "Religious and Modern Music", in the Music Room (Room 327) of the Abraham Lincoln High School in 1936-37.  The New York Schools website shows only a portion of the first mural on its excellent Public Art for Public Schools pages, so it is uncertain if the latter mural is still extant.
  • Ada County Courthouse and Murals (former) - Boise ID
    "Built in 1938-39, the Ada County Courthouse was constructed as part of the Depression-era Public Works Administration (PWA). Building the courthouse provided jobs not only for construction workers and craftsmen, but also for the artists that embellished it. The Art Deco style of the building is partly the result of using many workers who were not necessarily skilled in construction. The collaborative efforts of architectural firms Tourtellotte & Hummel and Wayland & Fennell resulted in a simple design characterized by geometric shapes, which were considered easier to build. The modern style and solid construction were also intended to communicate confidence...
  • Adams Hall Murals, University of Oklahoma - Norman OK
    The Adams Hall project included a series of murals reflecting different aspects of Oklahoma business life by Craig Sheppard, a fine arts student at the time. The murals "illustrate some of the prominent industries in Oklahoma’s economy, including farming, stock raising, transportation, retailing, banking, oil, mining and smelting."   (price.ou.edu) It is not clear if the murals were funded by the PWA directly or by another New Deal art program.
  • Addams Elementary School Fresco - Long Beach CA
    In 1938, under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), artist Suzanne Miller completed the fresco "A Visit to the Jungle" for Jane Addams Elementary School library in Long Beach, CA. According to the Arts Council for Long Beach, "This story-telling mural illustrates an original children’s fable, written by the artist, where children encounter an assortment of wise and friendly animals. Contemporaneous accounts note that the artist wrote a story of children visiting the jungle specifically to accompany her mural at the Jane Addams School." Miller also completed murals at the old Lincoln Park Main Library and Franklin Classical...
  • Administration Building (ENMU): Lloyd Moylan "Art" Mural - Portales NM
    The abstract mural titled "Art," by Lloyd Moylan, was funded by the WPA's Federal Art Project. The medium is tempera on plaster.  There were music classes held on the second floor of the ENMU Administration Building, which explains the choice of a piano mural on the second floor of the building. Later, the classes were moved to former WWII barracks until a new and separate music building was completed around 1958. So the caption might be “Moylan captured the sounds of music through the walls of the school’s Music Dept.” Nearby, the Golden Library houses this mural's twin, titled "Science". As Kathy...
  • Administration Building (ENMU): Moylan Mural - Portales NM
    "The 12th Chapter of Ecclesiastes" Medium: tempera on plaster The mural occupies a stairwell. All its components cannot be viewed at once. The following text is quoted from an informational postcard handout available on site: In 1937, the Work Projects Administration of the Federal Government established a program of murals in public buildings throughout the United States. Eastern New Mexico University made application to the Work Projects Administration for a mural to be painted in the Administration Building. Following approval of the application, a mural to represent the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Holy Bible was chosen. The Work Projects Administration employed...
  • Adobe Art Gallery - Castro Valley CA
    "The Adobe building, located on the grounds of the Castro Valley Elementary School, was leased to the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District for use as a community center. The Adobe was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project designed by Mario Corbett of San Francisco and built in 1938. The building is located in an elm grove planted by the Castro Valley Boy Scouts in 1926. There are hundreds of 4x9x16 inch adobe bricks made by the W.P.A. from dirt excavated from the site of the Redwood School in Castro Valley. The walls of the Adobe are 16 inches thick....
  • Ah-Gwah-Ching Sanitarium Artwork - Walker MN
    Between 1935 and 1943, the Ah-Gwah-Ching (“out of doors” in Ojibwe) sanitarium housed “more the 160 items including prints, watercolors, oils and woodcarvings by such artists as Bob Brown, Henry Bukowski, Reathel Keppen, Dorothea Lau, Alexander Oja and Bennet Swanson,” all created through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). When the sanitarium, which opened in 1907 to treat tuberculosis, closed in 2008, the Minnesota Historical Society became the steward of many of these artworks. They now comprise the Ah-Gwah-Ching Archive, much of which can be viewed through this page of the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • Ainsworth Elementary Marquetry by Aimee Gorham - Portland OR
    Aimee Gorham created a large wooden marquetry at the rear of Ainsworth auditorium. The piece is usually hidden behind band equipment and room dividers. In danger of damage unless acknowledged as US property, not Portland Public School property. According to Barry N. Ball (2004) "During the WPA period, Gorham did a large number of documented marquetry projects, actually starting in 1933 under the short-lived Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) when she demonstrated her sculptural skills with a bas relief of Abigail Scott Duniway, shown at the Portland Art Museum in 1934. She also did watercolors of fairy tales and prints of civilian...
  • Al Hayne Monument Restoration - Fort Worth TX
    The monument itself dates from 1893 but the original marble bust was replaced in 1934 by a bronze one sculpted by Evaline Sellors as a PWAP project. The curbing (reflecting pool) around the Al Hayne Monument is a CWA project: "The marble bust of Al Hayne, carved by Lloyd Bowman, was removed due to extreme deterioration, according to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article from June, 1934. (Note: this is at odds with a Fort Worth oral tradition which holds that the Hayne bust was stolen). Fort Worth sculptor Evaline Sellors received a commission from the federally-funded Public Works of Art Project to sculpt...
  • Alameda County Courthouse: Marble Murals - Oakland CA
    The former main entrance on the east side of the Alameda County Courthouse leads to an elegant lobby flanked by stairways and two large murals made of inlaid marble backed with gold and silver leaf.   The murals, which measure 10 x 30 feet, were designed by Marian Simpson and sculpted by Gaetano Duccini.  They were paid for by the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). One is called "Exploration" and depicts the Native American and Hispanic history of Alameda County.  The other is called "Settling of California" and portrays the arrival of Anglo frontier settlers.  That entrance and lobby is...
  • Alamo Stadium Tile Murals - San Antonio TX
    Alamo Stadium was built by the WPA in 1940. In 1941 four tile murals, entitled 100 Years of Sports in San Antonio, Texas, 1840-1940, were installed above the main entrance to the stadium; this project was under the auspices of the WPA Arts and Crafts program. The stadium recently underwent an extensive restoration/renovation program. The murals were removed and then reinstalled in their original location. The following description is from the NRHP nomination form: "To enhance the stadium, Ethel Wilson Harris, supervisor of the WPA Arts and Crafts Division in San Antonio, undertook her program’s largest project to date. The work was...
  • Albany County Public Library Mural - Laramie WY
    "Youth and Ambition" by Virginia Pitman, was commissioned by the WPA and presently housed in Laramie, Wyoming's Albany County Library. "The painting is divided into several sections. One shows men in line to enter a factory. Another depicts scientists in the lab. Still another shows a group of shirtless miners striking the earth. The figures are muscular and project a sense of industry. “It’s optimistic,” Schultes said."
  • Albuquerque Veterans' Hospital Decorative Ceiling Wood Carving - Albuquerque NM
    These carvings adorn the ceiling of Building No. 1 of the Veterans' Hospital, which was likely also a WPA project. From Public Art and Architecture in New Mexico 1933-1943 by Kathryn Flynn (2012): "Building No. 1 which currently houses the Psychology Department was one of the buildings constructed during the WPA activities and has unusually fine carved animal heads on the corbels which are at the end of the ceiling vigas. The carver or carvers are unknown. WPA handmade furniture is located throughout the building."
  • Alexander Hamilton High School Sculpture - Los Angeles CA
    In 1941, an unknown artist created a marble sculpture of Alexander Hamilton for Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, CA. Completed under the auspices of the Work Projects Administration Arts Project (WPAAP), the 6 foot 10 inch high sculpture depicts a young Alexander Hamilton dressed in knee breeches, a vest and a long coat. It is located in the main entrance foyer.
  • Algona Public Library Mural - Algona IA
    The mural "Daily Bread" -- currently on display at the Algona Public Library -- was completed with New Deal funds in 1941. The painting by Francis Robert White, formerly in the Algona Iowa post office, moved to the Algona Public Library. When the library was being remodeled, the mural was relocated to the Algona City Hall, where it is on display in the Algona city council chambers. City Hall is located at 112 W. Call Street, Algona, IA 50511.
  • American Island Animal Sculptures - Chamberlain SD
    WPA-funded animal sculptures have been moved from the CCC camp on American Island to Main Street in Chamberlain. A squirrel and coyote were placed outside the Chamberlain Swimming Pool, and two eagles sit on either side of the Avenue of Flags where it intersects Main St. Godakota.com and americanislanddays.com make this note about the camp and sculptures: "There was a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp located on American Island near Chamberlain, South Dakota. The camp workers were responsible for many of the improvements on the island and around Chamberlain in the 1930s and 40s. A photo taken by Orrion Barger seen in...
  • AMHA: Judy Zemnick Sculptures - Akron OH
    New Deal Daily, July 3, 2018: "While in the WPA, Zemnick created several sculptures highlighting the transportation history of Ohio. The pieces were created ca. 1935-1939. They are now incorporated into a multi-panel history display at the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA)." The squirrel sculpture pictured below was also Zemnick's creation, made during her employment with the WPA. However, it is not known if Zemnick made the full-size sculpture(s), or just the model to be used in creating the full-size sculpture(s).
  • Andrew Jackson High School (former) Mural - Queens NY
    Ruth Reeves painted this mural, entitled "Student Activities in School," for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was housed at the Andrew Jackson High School in Cambria, Queens, and believed by Living New Deal to be no longer extant.
  • Ann Rice O'Hanlon Fresco Mural - Lexington KY
    Ann Rice O’Hanlon’s was commissioned in 1934 through the Treasury Relief Art Project to create a fresco featured in Memorial Hall on the University of Kentucky’s Lexington campus. "The large fresco in the lobby of Memorial Hall depicts scenes from early Lexington and central Kentucky and images of cultural development. It was completed in 1934 by Ann Rice O'Hanlon, a University of Kentucky graduate..."
  • Ann Street Elementary School Mural – Los Angeles CA
    Artist Adrien Machefert painted a mural, "Pilgrim's Harvest Festival," at Ann Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA. He was funded by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). "Adrien Machefert, a man past fifty, was born in San Jose, California, and started drawing for San Francisco newspapers at the age of seventeen. Following fourteen years doing portrait and landscape painting on the Island of Majorca, Mr. Machefert returned two and a half years ago to California and has since been working for FAP most of the time" (Wells, p. 22). Machefert's other New Deal–funded murals in the region include "All Nations" at Ninth...
  • Anza Branch Library Frieze - San Francisco CA
    This frieze on the ceilings of the library's reading rooms depicts "Flowers and Animals" and was funded by the FAP and WPA. The artist is currently unknown to the Living New Deal. The library itself was completed in 1932, but is very similar in design to what soon after became known as the WPA style.
  • Applied Arts Building Mural, University of Wisconsin-Stout - Menomonie WI
    With WPA support, Cal Peters painted several murals for the University of Wisconsin-Stout campus, circa 1935-1936. This 7' x 20' oil on canvas is entitled "Perrault's Trading Fort." It depicts a trading post on Red Cedar River at the future site of Menomonie, Wisconsin. The mural is located in Room 315, Applied Arts, Choir Room, University of Wisconsin-Stout.
  • Apponaug Post Office Murals - Warwick RI
    Completed in 1942, this mural “Apponaug Fishermen” by artist Paul Sample depicts local shellfishers in Apponaug Cove. It resides in the Apponaug Post Office, dedicated in 1940.
  • Arizona State Fairgrounds Stadium and Art - Phoenix AZ
    The Works Progress Administration built the grandstand at the Arizona State Fair grounds in Phoenix. "As the Great Depression deepened and thousands were uprooted and looking for work, numerous fairgrounds were turned into camps for these transients. The Arizona State Fairgrounds provided a temporary place to stay and an opportunity to earn money through labor. Funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later the Works Progress Administration, transients helped to construct the stadium. A fifty-foot grandstand, an adobe wall on three sides of the grounds, and an auto racing track inside the horse track were created in 1936. Exhibit buildings...
  • Arlington High School (former) Murals - Arlington WA
    David M. Hartz, superintendent of Arlington’s schools, requested from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a mural of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox to adorn the walls of Arlington High School as a memorial of the folkloric past of the Pacific Northwest (and Arlington’s past as a lumber town). According to the February 1940 issue of the Washington Education Journal, “His inquiry to the WPA Art Project brought a happy response: ‘Yes, artists were available, and a mural could be done for very little cost.’” The result was that Washington-based artist Richard Correll painted the nine by twelve foot mural,...
  • ASU Museum Mural - Jonesboro AR
    H. Louis Freund painted this 13' x 4'8" oil on canvas mural "Early Days and First Post Office in Pocahontas" in 1939 for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts for the post office in Pocahontas. After years of damage, it was restored and transported to ASU. "The mural depicts several early scenes of Pocahontas and the surrounding areas. In the lower right is the community of Davidsonville, where the state's first post office was established in 1817. On the left is the old dam and mill as it existed around 1835 in the community of Birdell on the Eleven Point River....
  • Augusta Museum Visitor's Center Mural - Augusta GA
    Arnold Friedman painted this oil on canvas mural, entitled "Environs of Warrentown," in 1940 with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It was originally installed in the Warrentown post office but was removed in the early 1980's because of complaints about the mural's subject matter.
  • Augusta Post Office Mural (in storage) - Augusta GA
    This Treasury Section of Fine Arts mural was painted by William Dean Faussett in tempera on gesso in 1939. From contributor Jimmy Emerson, DVM: "It was originally installed in the Augusta PO but now is in storage in the Augusta Museum of Art. It erroneously depicts Oglethorpe's arriving in Augusta by water. He actually arrived over land." The mural has been in storage at the Augusta Museum of Art since 2004.
  • Balboa Park Club Sculpture - San Diego CA
    Frederick Schweigardt (1885 - 1948) was a student of the Stuttgart and Munich art academies in Germany, Schweigardt also studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris, where he received first prize at the Paris Exposition of 1913. Schweigardt was named the "official sculptor for the exposition," much to the surprise of San Diego's local sculptors. For the exposition, Schweigardt sculpted a large fountain, "Four Cornerstones of Americans Democracy," for the Hall of Education (now the Balboa Park Club). Schweigardt also sculpted a bronze relief plaque honoring D.C. Collier, director of the 1915 exposition, which can still be seen on the west wall...
  • Balboa Park: Casa de Balboa Murals - San Diego CA
    These two oil on canvas murals, entitled "Farm Landscape" and "Point Loma," were painted by Charles Reiffel on a commission from the WPA Federal Art Project in 1937. They were originally installed at Memorial Junior High School. Each mural measures 10' x 10'. Some contemporary critics called Reiffel "America's Van Gogh" (Balboa Park Beat, October 2012).
  • Balboa Park: Club Murals - San Diego CA
    Belle Baranceanu painted two oil on canvas murals at Balboa Park in 1935, paid for with federal funding:  "Progress of Man" and “Education and Culture”.  She rushed to complete the later for the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition and would later claim that she could not stand to look at it. These are the only two of her murals to survive in their original location.
  • Balboa Park: House of Hospitality Bas Relief - San Diego CA
    Rose Hanks created this incised plaster relief depicting "Junipero Serra" for the fair.
  • Balboa Park: House of Hospitality Sculpture - San Diego CA
    This 4' high Indiana limestone sculpture and fountain by Donal Hord is titled "Woman of Tehuantepec" and is located in the courtyard of the House of Hospitality at San Diego's Balboa Park.
  • Banning High School Mural - Banning CA
    The Public Works of Art Project funded the painting of the Banning High School Mural in Banning CA. The 65-feet long mural depicts scenes from Banning's history, showing its farming and mining legacy. The mural is titled "The Drama of Banning" and was painted by Pauline French (née Hirst). The artist lived in Riverside when she painted the mural. The second name signed on the mural is Edwin Frank, who might have been French's assistant, according to The Press Enterprise. Arthur Cain also worked on the mural with Hirst. The three artists enlisted Rex Brandt's help with painting the locomotive. Stanton McDonald Wright and Lorsen...
  • Barrier Canyon Mural - Price UT
    A portion of Lynn Fausett's  Barrier Canyon mural hangs in the Prehistoric Museum at Utah State University Eastern. It is part of an enormous, 82-foot canvas painting done by Fausett in 1940 under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) Arts Project (WPAAP). The segment of the mural on display in the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum is the smaller of two (12 x 22 ft.) and depicts approximately the left hand one-fourth of the Great Gallery. The larger section of the mural hangs in the Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.    The mural...
  • Barrier Canyon Mural, Natural History Museum of Utah - Salt Lake City UT
    The largest portion of Lynn Fausett's WPA-funded Barrier Canyon mural hangs at the back of the entry hall of the University of Utah Museum of Natural History at the eastern flank of the University of Utah campus (a smaller portion hangs in the Natural History Museum in Price, Utah). The canvas mural measures 12 x 60 feet and depicts ancient native pictographs/petroglyphs that Fausett had observed at the Great Gallery in Canyonlands National Monument (now a National Park), in what is known as the "Barrier Canyon Rock Art" style.   The mural was originally painted to be hung at the Museum of Modern...
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