- City:
- Long Beach, CA
- Site Type:
- Murals, Art Works
- New Deal Agencies:
- WPA Arts Project (WPAAP), Arts Programs
- Completed:
- 1940
- Artists:
- Arthur Ames, Dorr Bothwell, Elizabeth Mills, Jean Goodwin, Mary Stanfield, Serena Swanson
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
This massive 5′ x 132′ mural titled “History of Flight” is located in the library at Lindbergh STEAM Academy in Long Beach, CA. Jean Goodwin Ames and Arthur Ames designed the mural under the auspices of the Work Projects Administration Art Project (WPAAP); Serena Swanson, Dorr Bothwell, Elizabeth Mills, and Mary Stanfield painted it.
Completed in 1940, the mural depicts aviation history “through an array of
cultures, empires, countries and eras including the Turkish/Persians period, Greek Gods, the early modern period depicted through the Renaissance, and the modern era illustrated through the British colonies in the 1700s, the flight of a hot air balloon in France, the Wright Brothers, and Charles Lindbergh, a mythological figure over the ocean, Amelia Earhardt, gliders from the 1930s/40s, and an astrological scene” (LBUSD WPA Artwork Collections Assessment Guidelines Survey, p. 19).
Source notes
Interview with Jean Goodwin and Arthur Ames
David Haldane, Gallery Rediscovers Heritage of Depression-Era Artworks, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1991.
Robin J. Dunitz, Street Gallery: Guide to 1000 Los Angeles Murals (RJD Enterprises, 1998), p. 253.
Andrea Morse, Michelle A. Lee, Michelle Rosenberg, Long Beach Unified School District WPA Artwork Collections Assessment Guidelines Survey, April 2011.
Site originally submitted by Shaina Potts on June 17, 2008.
Additional contributions by Natalie McDonald.
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