Clinton Federal Building: Reliefs and Sculptures – Washington DC

Description

The William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, originally the US Post Office Department, was begun under the Hoover Administration and completed under the New Deal in 1934.  It is richly decorated with New Deal artworks paid for by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. There are 25 murals and 22 sculptural elements: 12 bas-reliefs, 2 statues, and 8 carved wood medallions.

The building serves today as the headquarters for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  It includes a local branch post office, called Benjamin Franklin Station, on Pennsylvania Avenue, that is open to the public; but entry to the rest of the building is limited and requires prior arrangements. To arrange for a tour, email [email protected].  

These are the sculptural elements:

Aluminum relief by A. Stirling Calder: “Post Rider Continental – 1775-1789” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Gaetano Cecere: “Rural Free Delivery” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Chaim Gross: “Alaska Snowshoe Carrier” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Arthur Lee: “Pony Express – 1850-1858” (1937).

Aluminum relief by Oronzio Maldarelli: “Air Mail” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Berta Margoulies: “Postman, 1691-1775” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Attilio Piccirilli: “Present Day Postman” (1937).

Aluminum relief by Concetta Scaravaglione:
“Railway Mail – 1862” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Carl L. Schmitz: “City Delivery Carrier” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Louis Slobodkin: “Tropical Postman” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Heinz Warneke: “Express Man” (1936).

Aluminum relief by Sidney Waugh: “Stage Driver, 1789-1836” (1936).

Marble sculpture by William Zorach: “Benjamin Franklin, the First Colonial Postmaster” (1937).

Marble sculpture by Paul Manship: “Statue of Samuel Osgood, First Postmaster General” (1937).

Carved wood medallions by Gleb Derujinsky depicting portraits of eight former postmaster generals (1937).