Udall Department of the Interior Building: Crumbo Murals – Washington DC

State:
WASHINGTON-DC

Site Type:
Art Works, Murals

New Deal Agencies:
Arts Programs, Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA)

Started:
1939

Completed:
1940

Artist:
Woodrow Wilson Crumbo

Quality of Information:
Very Good

Marked:
Yes

Site Survival:
Extant

Description

The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior building contains one of the largest collections of New Deal art in Washington DC, by some of the finest American artists of the time. 

From 1939 to 1941, Woodrow Wilson Crumbo of the Creek-Potawatomie Tribe in Oklahoma and other Indian artists were invited to Washington to study mural painting with Olle Nordmark and then create murals in the Interior building.

Crumbo painted several murals concerning Potawatomie life in inner room of the South Penthouse on the 8th floor (the former Employees’ Break Room).  They are: “Buffalo Hunt”, “Wild Horses”, “Deer”, “Courting”, “Flute Player”, “Peyote Bird.”

The Department of Interior Museum offers regular mural tours; check their website for information and registration. 

For more information on the Interior building, its art and the artists, see Look and Perrault 1986. Artworks begin on p. 110.

Source notes

Look, David and Carole Perrault. The Interior Building: Its Architecture and Its Art. Washington DC: US Department of Interior, National Park Service, 1986.  pp. 110-172.   https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015029850214&view=1up&seq=1

Department of the Interior

McLerran, Jennifer. 2009. A New Deal for Native Art: Indian Arts and Federal Policy, 1933-1943. University of Arizona Press.

https://kosharehistory.org/museum/crumbo.html

Site originally submitted by New Deal Art Registry on December 30, 2014.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.

Location Info


1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Location notes: South Penthouse

Coordinates: 38.8943, -77.0425

Site Details

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