New Deal Art in Cincinnati, Ohio
The following
is from "The History of Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport - 75 Years
of Aviation"
Lunken Airport, 262 Wilmer Avenue,
Cincinnati
Shortly
after World War I, a group of ex-army pilots leveled off a grain field
outside Cincinnati and built a small barnstorming airport. A prominent
local industrialist, Mr. Edmund P. Lunken, purchased the property and in
the early 20s leased his 204 acres of land to the private Lunken Airport
Company for use as an airfield. On September 5, 1928, Mr. Lunken leased
the property to the City of Cincinnati. The city purchased additional land,
creating Lunken Airport on 2,000 acres. Charles Lindbergh visited Lunken
Airport in 1927 on his way to New York before making his historic trans-Atlantic
flight to Paris, France. In 1929, Lunken Airport had 29,059 flights carrying
8,528 passengers and 80,000 pounds of mail. By the airport's dedication
ceremony in 1930, Lunken was the largest commercial airport in the United
States.
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The paintings at the
Lunken terminal were painted in 1937 by William Harry Gothard and were
designed to compliment the ornate plasterwork (destroyed by the flood of
1937 during construction).
The paintings were already
half-completed when the flood of 1937 struck. The paintings were moved
to the Union Terminal for completion. When the terminal opened, they were
returned to Lunken.
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Mr. Gothard was the Chief Conservationist
of the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1937 and won a Federal Art Project competition
for the paintings.
Both paintings are oil
on canvas and framed, each marked with the brass Federal Art Project tag
on the bottom frame.
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The painting on the left
as you walk into the terminal depicts surface transportation (trains, stagecoachs)
and shows gravity as a huge burden on the shoulders of man.
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The painting on the right
shows the same man soaring over the Ohio River Valley with the freedom
of flight.
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The Lunken terminal isn't
the hub of activity that it was before the
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport moved to Erlanger, and
there aren't as many people bustling through the terminal to notice the
paintings, but they remain a valuable part of Cincinnati history.
www.FlyLunken.com
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