Post Office Mural – Crystal Springs MS

City:
Crystal Springs, MS

Site Type:
Art Works, Murals

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

Artist:
Henry La Cagnina

Marked:
No

Description

A mural by Henry La Cagnina, created under the Treasury Bureau’s Section of Fine Arts program, was completed and installed in the post office in 1943 at a cost of $700.00.

“Harvest” illustrated the important truck farming industry in the Crystal Springs, Mississippi area in the 1930s (Enzweiler, 1992). La Cagnina’s mural featured farm workers and women packers preparing vegetables for shipment. Crystal Springs was known as the “tomatroplis of the world” during that period, and shipped vegetables all over the US via train, apparently providing employment and income that benefitted the community during the years of the Great Depression (Nelson-Easley, 2007).

According to La Cagnina, the mural was inappropriately restored when a preservative glaze was applied, giving the mural a “black tonality” and altering the “original pearly gray tonality” (Enzweiler, describing personal communication with the artist). Enzweiler described it as the obvious commitment of the community to preserve the mural, however short-sited the preservation attempt may have been.

Source notes

Enzweiler, S. M. (1992). National Register of Historic Places nomination form. Retrieved from https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/nom/prop/5502.pdf. Nelson-Easley, L. M. (2007). Images of America: Copiah County. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.

Site originally submitted by Susan Allen on March 23, 2013.

Location Info


301 Marion Street, East
Crystal Springs, Mississippi 39059
Copiah County

Coordinates: 31.9852094, -90.35519

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