Post Office Mural – Fredericktown MO

City:
Fredericktown, MO

Site Type:
Art Works, Murals

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

Completed:
1939

Artist:
James Turnbull

Description

The post office contains a 1939 Section of Fine Arts mural by James Turnbull entitled “The Lead Belt.”

Haunting work showing the juxtaposition of a farmer plowing his field in the wind in the lower right quarter, while the upper half is dominated by a large mine , processing plant and a growing tailings pile that are killing trees at its base and encroaching on the farmer’s field.  In the lower left quarter is the lane to the mead mine and severe erosion.

James Turnbull was born in St. Louis in 1909, studied journalism at the Univ. of Missouri, then the School of Fine Arts in St. Louis and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  He lobbied for and was then named the director of the Missouri WPA project, resigning in 4 months to pursue art.  He painted 2 murals in Missouri.  During WWII, he was a war correspondent for Life magazine and after the war settled in Woodstock, NY.

Source notes

Park and Markowitz, Democratic Vistas, Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, 1984.

Site originally submitted by Charles Swaney on June 8, 2013.

Location Info


155 S. Main St.
Fredericktown, MO 63645
Madison County

Coordinates: 37.558652, -90.29446

At this Location:

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