Main Post Office Murals – St. Louis MO

Description

The post office contains nine stunning murals by artists Edward Millman and Mitchell Siporin. Depicting the “cycle on history of the region,” this massive project was the largest single project awarded for a Post Office by the Treasury Section. The award shared by the 2 was $29,000. The labels following each mural describe the contents quite well, but as Park and Markowitz noted, the works were not depicting the usual classical conquest, but instead showed Indians and Black slaves working the lead mines well before statehood, the Dred Scott Decision, and the struggles during and after the Civil War. The murals together are an unusual and realistic depiction of the struggles in the state of Missouri. There are 2 interesting quotes by Walt Whitman on the east panels. Also of note is the acknowledgement of the assistant and plasters.

Edward Millman was born 1907 in Chicago, studied at the Chicago Art Institute and in Mexico City under Diego Rivera. He joined the Naval Reserve and designed posters , but subsequently went to the front, covering the war as an artist. He taught at the University of Indiana, Cornell University, the University of Buffalo, and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he died in 1964.

Mitchell Siporin was born 1910 in New York City and did illustrations for Esquire and other magazines. He collaborated with Millman both in St. Louis and Decatur, IL. After the war, he founded the art department at Brandeis University.