- City:
- Cheyenne, WY
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Murals
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), Arts Programs
- Artists:
- Jeanette Kaiser, Libbie Hoffman
Description
“The CWA also supported the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), a six-month project that was a precursor to later New Deal arts projects. PWAP resulted in only a few works in Wyoming, one of which was the creation of a mural and decorative frieze adorning the library in McCormick Junior High School in Cheyenne. Two Cheyenne artists, Libbie Hoffman and Jeanette Kaiser, painted the mural.”
“The mural portrays an episode from the lore of frontier Wyoming — the reading of Shakespeare’s work to Scout Jim Bridger. Bridger is reputed to have traded a yoke of oxen for a volume of Shakespeare’s plays and to have paid a clerk at Fort Laramie to read the book to him. The mural was conceived and executed by two artists in the Cheyenne area, Libbie Hoffman and Jeanette Kaiser.”
The former McCormick Junior High School facility in downtown Cheyenne is now known as the Emerson Building.
Source notes
"Places of Learning: Historical Context of Schools in Wyoming," prepared for the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office Planning and Historic Context Development Program, Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources. https://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/pdf/WyomingSchoolsContext.pdf (pg. 120, .pdf pg. 122) "Annals of Wyoming," by Wyoming State Historical Society. Volume 45, Spring 1973, No. 1 (pg. 55). https://archive.org/stream/annalsofwyom45121973wyom#page/54/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/annalsofwyom45121973wyomSite originally submitted by Evan Kalish on June 8, 2017.
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This mural no longer exists. It was destroyed during one of the renovations to the Emerson Building.