Endearing images on the walls of 1930s post offices have captured the American scene and transformed the post office into a truly democratic art gallery. During the Great Depression that plagued the nation in the 1930s and 40s, Americans searched for images that could serve as beacons of hope during a time of economic and emotional despair. The Federal government, under the direction of President Roosevelt, implemented a “New Deal Policy” designed to provide work for the unemployed and hope to a destitute people. An essential element of the project took the form of art, more specifically, art that the average American could relate to. This art for the people was shaped into federally funded murals that were installed in nearly 1400 post offices around the country. Twenty one of these murals were commissioned for post offices in Arkansas, nineteen exist today.
The Arkansas post office mural compositions portray a variety images that reveal aspects of the artist, the local community the mural was created for, and the federal government’s message during a time of hardship. But the murals are more than simple compositions of life in rural Arkansas; they are images created by an artist to communicate a message. This message is unique to each individual artist and their mural. Although the compositions depict recognizable scenes that echo the towns for which they were commissioned, it is the hidden message described through stylistic manipulation and subject matter that conveys the beliefs and attitudes of the artist. I argue that the murals are more than simple scenes of rural life, but provide the viewer with an introspective look into the life of the artist, the rural community, and the government’s effort to salvage an identity that had been lost to the economic strife of the 1930s.
In my quest to research Arkansas’s post office murals, I approached the project from two vantage points. As an art historian, I selected seven murals to analyze. These were chosen because they not only presented the greatest challenge, but also provided an opportunity to conduct first hand research. Among the sparse literature concerning post office murals, those I chose to analyze were either briefly mentioned or completely overlooked. This anonymity provided the perfect opportunity to conduct truly innovative research. I became a detective, searching for living relatives of the mural artists, reading the personal correspondence between the artist and the federal government, and perusing old newspaper articles and excerpts from personal journals and diaries. These obscure resources yielded insightful information, helping to answer questions such as, “Why did the artist choose to this scene to represent an entire community?” “Why did he/she paint in this particular style?” and “How did the artist’s background influence the mural composition?”
As I researched the murals, the locale, and the individual artists, it became apparent that each mural composition drew on different avenues of influence. For example, Mary Purser, the artist who painted How Happy Was The Occasion (fig. ) for Clarksville, Arkansas, used the book The History of Johnson County as the primary source for her composition, constructing her mural around a literary description of Clarksville. On the other side of the spectrum is Abraham Tobias’s mural, They Cleared the Land and Planted Cotton, designed for Clarendon, Arkansas. Instead of a literary source, Tobias relied on traditional art imagery, composing a scene that referenced images of the Madonna and Child as well as the towering sculptures of Hercules and 18th century family portraits such as Charles Wilson Peale’s The Peale Family (fig. ). For some artists, like Ludwig Mactarian, artistic training and experience played a significant role in his approach to Cotton Growing, Manufacture and Export, designed for Dardanelle, Arkansas; where as Joe Jones’s Threshing, composed for Magnolia, Arkansas, drew on the artist’s political sentiments rather than his training. The unique approach of each artist subsequently required a unique approach to the analysis of each composition. Thus, the proceeding discussions focus on those characteristics that played a significant role in each mural’s composition, spotlighting significant details while briefly mentioning those aspects that are only slightly relevant. This approach illustrates the variety of routes that each artist traveled to reach a composition that harmonized with the local community, pleased the federal government, and fulfilled their need to create a meaningful composition.
My second avenue of approach was that of a person who believes that art should play a significant role in everyday life. More specifically, that it should occupy a more prominent position in grade school education. The murals provide a unique opportunity for educators to engage in a discussion of local art as it relates to a time in our nation’s history. The murals, although provincial in presentation, are national in scope. They are illustrations composed for the local level that represent the sentiments of a nation during the Great Depression. Thus, they have the ability to unite the study of Arkansas History, United States History, and Art History, a truly interdisciplinary approach.
In an effort to integrate Arkansas’s post office murals into the Arkansas History Curriculum taught in the state schools, I contacted Mr. Steven Weber, the Arkansas Department of Education’s Social Studies Curriculum Specialist. In discussing possible avenues of implementation, we reached the conclusion that a website would be the best possible resource for achieving such a goal. Thus, I combined forces with art education majors to establish a website that would provide teachers with lesson plans fusing Arkansas History with Art. Upon the site’s completion, Mr. Weber will establish a permanent link to the site from the Arkansas Department of Education’s Homepage.
My thesis, “A People’s Art: Arkansas’s Post Office Murals” has been a two-fold project, addressing Arkansas’s murals as works of art to be analyzed and as images with potential of bridging the gap between Arkansas History and art. The project is timely, not only because the primary sources of information available for the researcher will soon be extinct, but also because the murals themselves are currently falling into disrepair. There is not established method of preservation dedicated to conserving Arkansas’s post office murals. By stressing their educational potential and directing attention to the mural’s existence, I hope to not only increase general awareness of the murals, but also define them as invaluable works of art. The murals are relics of a time in our nation’s history when the federal government, the local community, and the professional artist combined forces to create an image that would bring hope to a destitute people and pull a nation out of the Great Depression.