- City:
- Delhi, NY
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Murals
- New Deal Agencies:
- Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA), Arts Programs
- Completed:
- 1940
- Artist:
- Mary Earley
Description
The historic Delhi post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: a 1940 mural by artist Mary Earley titled “Down-Rent War, Around 1845.” The mural was a winner of the New Deal 48-State Competition Post Office murals.
Source notes
"The New Deal: A 75th Anniversary Celebration." Kathryn Flynn with Richard Polese.
https://www.wpamurals.org/newyork.htm
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on October 15, 2018.
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Robert Rightmire
Linda Egner
The Down-Rent War (Around 1845)
Mary Earley (1900- )
Installed 1940, Oil and Tempera on Canvas
Mural Subject: From 1839 to 1846, local farmers participated\ in organized opposition to the local fe.udal land systeryi, calling themselves Calico Indians due to their disguises. When a tenant farmer was about to be evicted by the county Sheriff for failure to pay his rent, the neighboring farmers would dress in a Calico pinafore with a painted sheepskin mask and go to rally for their neighbor. The Calico Indians would order the Sheriff to burn the eviction notice and leave. If he did not do so, he would be tarred and feathered. The artist selected this subject as she felt it to be an important part of American History and that is was an appropriate subject for the Delhi mural as the town and the surrounding area had been the scene of several such events.
The artist did not depict a specific event from the Down-Rent War in the mural, but sought to portray a typical meeting of the Calico Indians. The meeting is occurring just before dawn with the farmers preparing to march to a neighboring farm. The boy on the right is blowing on a tin horn to warn the group that the Sheriff is approaching from the left, and to break up the meeting before they are caught.
Artist’s Biography: Mary Earley was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1900. She studied painting in New York City at the Art Students League, with additional training in frescos in Italy and Mexico. Earley exhibited her paintings primarily in group shows across the country throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and was selected for the “Presentation Show” at the Woodstock, New York, Art Association in 1960. In addition to the Delhi mural, she also completed a mural at the Middleburg, New York, Post Office.
The mural was selected for the Delhi Post Office by the Section of Fine Arts in the 1939 Forty-Eight States Mural Competition and was featured in the December 4, 1939 issue of Life Magazine. For more information on the mural subject see A Free Soil- A Free People by Dorothy Kubik.
Hello:
Is there a way I could get a digital image of the Delhi Post Office mural? Happy to pay for it. It is for a display at the Andes Society for History and Culture. Thank you.