Survival: No Longer Extant

In 1939, George Samerjan painted a three-panel mural titled "Industry" for the post office in Maywood, CA. It was commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts (SFA). Samerjan painted "Industry" as a tribute to Maywood's working class. "The central panel depicted a group of men working with pavement breakers, in the left panel showed carpenters and on the right were plasterers." Samerjan's work was "influenced by the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose politically charged frescos addressed issues such as labor rights and community unrest. George chose scenes for his murals that reflected on the lived realities of...

The original structure (Circleville Elementary) dates to 1921 - 22 (Pope & Burton, architects). High school attendance in this very rural area grew dramatically during the 1920s due to a new state law requiring compulsory school attendance until age 18. Thus in 1926, high school students were moved to the Pope & Burton structure and it was renamed Piute High School. In 1946 a WPA-funded addition was built for high school industrial arts and home economics as well as the Circleville town board office. The addition was to the right of the Pope & Burton structure, and comparatively large. The doors...

In 1937, Zack Hogg completed a mural at the former Public Library in Whittier, CA. Hogg received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). The Whittier Public Library was located at Bailey and Greenleaf from 1907 to 1959, when it relocated to it's current site at 7344 Washington Ave. The status of Hogg's mural is unknown.

In 1937, Frank H. Bowers and Arthur W. Prunier painted a 2,000 square foot mural at the former Ruth Home in El Monte, CA. They received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). The Pacific Protective Society's Ruth Home provided housing, treatment, and schooling to girls and babies infected with gonorrhea. Bowers' and Prunier's mural, which depicts a beauty salon, was located in a school and arts & crafts building on the fifteen-acre campus. It is presumed lost. Bowers and Prunier also collaborated on a pair of FAP murals at City Hall in South Gate, CA.

In 1937, Stanton Macdonald-Wright (assisted by Albert King) completed a tile mosaic wall panel for a drinking fountain at the old Santa Monica Public Library in Santa Monica, CA. He received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). The mosaic panel was presumably lost during the demolition of the old library (located at 503 Santa Monica Boulevard) in 1974. However, Macdonald-Wright painted a mural, “Invention and Imagination" (1935), in the library's reading room that has subsequently been reinstalled at the new Santa Monica Public Library, one block away. Macdonald-Wright was supervisor for the Southern California division of the FAP from 1935 to 1943....

In 1937, Myer Shaffer painted a mural, "The Elder in Relation to Society," for the Mt. Sinai Home for Chronic Invalids in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The 400 square foot mural received funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). "Shaffer used his artwork to draw attention to social crisis, this time that of eldercare. He explained in the Hollywood Citizen-News that he placed biblical figures Judas Maccabee and King David in the foreground to illustrate 'that age does not incapacitate.' Yet the mural delivered a much stronger social message; in the upper detail of the fresco...

In 1936, Myer Shaffer painted a mural, "The Social Aspects of Tuberculosis," for the Los Angeles Tubercular Sanatorium in Duarte, CA, the site of today's City of Hope. The 7 by 18 foot mural received funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), the American Artists' Congress, and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Shaffer was a 23-year-old student of Mexican social realist artist David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Chouinard Institute in Los Angeles, CA, when he was hired. "Unlike many WPA muralists who painted anonymous subjects or imagined suitable subject matter without doing the research to support their choices,...

In 1937, Saul Rabino painted a mural, "Moses—Hebrew Prophets," for the Jewish Home for the Aged in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. He received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). Inspired by the Los Angeles County Poor Farm in Downey, CA, the Hebrew Sheltering Association opened its Home for the Aged  in August 1915. The Home provided "housing to around forty full-time residents ranging from seventy to ninety-three years old, as well as daily kosher meals, clothing, and free religious services at Congregation Tiferes Israel (located just across the street on East First) to all of those...

In 1937, with Federal Art Project (FAP) funding, Lorser Feitelson painted an oil-on-canvas mural for the Hall of Records in Los Angeles, CA. Feitelson's mural was located in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, alongside FAP murals by Charles H. Davis, Helen Lundeberg, and Buckley MacGurrin (see linked projects). The Hall of Records, built in 1911, was demolished after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. The status of all five murals is unknown. Feitelson was the FAP's supervisor of murals in Southern California from 1937 to 1943. His other FAP works in the region include a mural at Thomas Alva Edison Middle School in...

In 1937, with Federal Art Project (FAP) funding, Helen Lundeberg painted an oil-on-canvas mural for the Hall of Records in Los Angeles, CA. Lundeberg's mural was located in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, alongside FAP murals by Charles H. Davis, Lorser Feitelson, and Buckley MacGurrin (see linked projects). The Hall of Records, built in 1911, was demolished after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. The status of all five murals is unknown. Lundeberg's other FAP works in the region include a pair of murals, "Quests of Mankind" (1940), at Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, CA; a pair of murals, "History of...