Billie Jean King Main Library Murals – Long Beach CA

City:
Long Beach, CA

Site Type:
Murals, Art Works

New Deal Agencies:
Federal Arts Project (FAP), Arts Programs

Completed:
1937

Artists:
Bessie Pierce Heller, Suzanne Miller

Quality of Information:
Good

Marked:
Yes

Site Survival:
Extant

Description

Suzanne Miller painted a nine-panel series of murals in 1937 under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). Known both as “Children’s Stories” and “Scenes from English Language Literature,” the murals were originally located at the old Lincoln Park Main Library in Long Beach, CA. After it burned down, the murals were relocated to the new Billie Jean King Main Library.

The murals include scenes drawn from Hiawatha (Longfellow), Il Penseroso (Milton), Vicar of Wakefield (Goldsmith), Rip Van Winkle (Irving), King Solomon (Old Testament), Man with the Hoe (Markham), Alice in Wonderland (Carroll), Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (Gray), Complete Angler (Walton), Faerie Queene (Spenser), Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan), L’Allegro (Milton), Lady of Shalot (Tennyson), The Tempest (Shakespeare), and Canterbury Tales (Chaucer).

Miller also completed murals at Jane Addams Elementary School and Franklin Classical Middle School in Long Beach.

Source notes

Originally posted on the New Deal Art Registry

Robin J. Dunitz, Street Gallery: Guide to 1000 Los Angeles Murals (RJD Enterprises, 1998), p. 251.

Arts Council of Long Beach

Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on October 13, 2014.

Location Info


200 W Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90802
Los Angeles County

Coordinates: 33.7688, -118.1944

Contribute to this Site

We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal site.

Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site

Join the Conversation

Please note:

  • We are not involved in the management of New Deal sites and have no information about visits, hours or rentals.
  • This page shows all the information we have for this site; if you have new information or photos to share, click the button above.

Your email address will not be published, shared, or sold.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contribute to this Site

We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.

Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site

Join the Conversation

Please note:

  • We are not involved in the management of New Deal sites and have no information about visits, hours or rentals.
  • This page shows all the information we have for this site; if you have new information or photos to share, click the button above.

Your email address will not be published, shared, or sold.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.