- State:
- WASHINGTON-DC
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Murals
- New Deal Agencies:
- Arts Programs, Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA)
- Completed:
- 1943
- Artist:
- Herschel Levit
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
“Although the ROD Building was a municipal building, the District of Columbia’s peculiar sovereignty status required that the federal government approve its construction, and that the Treasury Department Section of Fine Art play a major role in its art program…
The Treasury Sections December 1, 1942 announcement of the ROD Building mural competition was a term paper-like, ten page document that required artists to submit their entries unsigned for anonymous judging…
A press release announced that the winners wide geographic dispersion and almost equal female-male ratio, as well as the inclusion of accomplished African-American painter William Edouard Scott, proved the fairness of the blind selection process. Indeed, many of the artists selected had already painted murals for public buildings, and would have distinguished careers in the arts…”
(NRHP)
Herschel Levit painted this oil on canvas mural “Crispus Attucks.”
Source notes
Originally posted in the New Deal Art Registry: https://www.newdealartregistry.org/
National Register of Historic Places, 1990
At this Location:
- Recorder of Deeds Building: Mecklem Mural - Washington DC
- Recorder of Deeds Building: Portraits - Washington DC
- Recorder of Deeds Building (former) - Washington DC
- Recorder of Deeds Building: Scott Mural - Washington DC
- Recorder of Deeds Building: Magafan Mural - Washington DC
- Recorder of Deeds Building: Schweig Mural - Washington DC
- Recorder of Deeds Building: Seelbinder Mural - Washington DC
- Recorder of Deeds Building: Lopez Mural - Washington DC
View all sites at Recorder of Deeds Building - Washington DC (9 Sites)
Site Details
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These murals are fantastic. However there are two captioning errors:
Douglass has two “s” not one.
Matthew Henson is associated with the North Pole not the South Pole.