Recorder of Deeds Building: Mecklem Mural – Washington DC

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)

Austin Mecklem painted “Matthew Henson Planting the American Flag at the North Pole.”