New Deal/WPA Art in Texas
The Texas Historical Commission has published a brochure on the Texas Post Office Murals of the New Deal. This was done in conjunction with a traveling photo exhibit on these works of art. While most of the murals are installed in US Post Offices, there are several exceptions such as El Paso and Dallas.
You can order
3 posters of the Texas New Deal Post Office murals from the Institute of
Texan Cultures at UTSA at: http://store.the-museum-store.org/tepoofmuofne.html
"Music at the Plains" (Kilgore, TX) by Xavier Gonzalez
"Pioneer Saga" (Kilgore, TX)
"Ranchers of the Panhandle Fighting Prairie Fire with Skinned Steer"
(Brownfield, TX) by Frank Mechau
Each poster is 17"x23" and four-color. They are $10 each or all
3 for $25.
Post Office New Deal Artwork
Most of the Post Office works of art were funded through commissions under the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later known as The Section of Fine Arts) and not the WPA.
"Often mistaken for WPA art, post office murals were actually executed by artists working for the Section of Fine Arts. Commonly known as "the Section," it was established in 1934 and administered by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department. Headed by Edward Bruce, a former lawyer, businessman, and artist, the Section's main function was to select art of high quality to decorate public buildings if the funding was available. By providing decoration in public buildings, the art was made accessible to all people." from "Articles from EnRoute : Off The Wall: New Deal Post Office Murals" by Patricia Raynor
Unless indicated, works of art are located in the US Post Office building.
|
Location |
Artist |
Title |
Date |
Medium |
| Alice | Warren Hunter | "South Texas Panorama" | 1939 | mural |
|
|
Jose Moya del Pino |
"View of Alpine" |
1940 |
oil on masonite |
| Alvin | Loren Mozley | "Emigrants at Nightfall" | 1940 | oil on canvas |
|
Amarillo (now the Federal Building) |
Julius Woeltz |
"Cattle Loading" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Amarillo (now the Federal Building) |
Julius Woeltz |
"Oil" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Amarillo (now the Federal Building) |
Julius Woeltz |
"Cattle Branding" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Amarillo (now the Federal Building) |
Julius Woeltz |
"Gang Plow & Disk Harrow" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Amarillo (now the Federal Building) |
Julius Woeltz |
"Coronado's Exploration Party in the Palo Duro Canyon" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Anson |
Jenne Magafan |
"Cowboy Dance" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Arlington |
Otis Dozier |
"Gathering Pecans" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Big Spring |
Peter Hurd |
"Old Pioneers" |
1938 |
fresco |
|
Borger
|
Jose Aceves |
"Big City News" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Brady |
Gordon Grant |
"Texas Immigrant" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Brownfield Police Headquarters |
Frank Mechau |
"Ranchers of the Panhandle Fighting Prairie Fire with Skinned Steer" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
Caldwell (moved to College Station USPO) |
Suzanne Scheuer |
"Indians Moving" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Canyon |
Ben Mead |
"Coronado's Coming" |
1934 |
oil on canvas |
|
Canyon |
Harold Bugbee |
"The Cattleman" |
1934 |
oil on canvas |
|
Canyon |
Gustaf Sunstrom |
(prehistoric mammals that lived on the Panhandle-Plains) |
1934 |
oil on Masonite, (7 panels, 36"x 48" each) |
|
Canyon |
Ben Mead |
"Antelope Creek" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
Canyon |
Harold Bugbee |
"Ranch Headquarters" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
Canyon |
Francis Ankrom |
"Strays" |
1938 |
oil on canvas |
|
Center |
Edward Chavez |
"Logging Scene" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Clifton |
Ila McAffe |
"Texas Longhorn - A Vanishing Breed" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
| College Station (missing) | Victor Arnautoff | "Good Technique - Good Harvest" | 1938 | oil on canvas |
| Conroe (missing) | Nicholas Lyon | "Early Texans" | 1938 | oil on canvas |
|
Cooper |
Lloyd Goff |
"Before the Fencing of Delta County" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Corpus Christi |
Howard Cook |
"The Sea: Port Activities and Harbor Fisheries" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Dallas at the Terminal Annex Building |
Peter Hurd |
"Eastbound Mail Stage" |
1940 |
mural |
|
Dallas at the Terminal Annex Building |
Peter Hurd |
"Pioneer Home Builders" |
1940 |
mural |
|
Dallas at the Terminal Annex Building |
Peter Hurd |
"Airmail Over Texas" |
1940 |
mural |
|
Decatur |
Ray Strong |
"Texas Plains" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Eastland |
Suzanne Scheuer |
"Indian Buffalo Hunt" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
| Edinburg (painted over) |
Ward Lockwood | "Harvest of the Rio Grande Valley" | 1940 | oil and tempera on canvas |
|
El Campo |
Milford Zornes |
"Rural Texas Gulf Coast" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Electra |
Allie Tennant |
"Oil, Cattle, Wheat" |
1940 |
plaster relief |
|
Elgin |
Julius Woeltz |
"Texas Farm" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
El Paso Federal Courthouse |
Tom Lea |
"Pass of the North" |
1938 |
oil on canvas |
|
Farmersville |
Jerry Bywaters |
"Soil Conservation in Collin County" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Fort Worth |
Frank Mechau |
"Taking of Sam Bass" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
Fort Worth |
Frank Mechau |
"Two Texas Rangers" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
Fort Worth |
Frank Mechau |
"Flags Over Texas" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
Fredericksburg |
Otis Dozier |
"Loading Cattle" |
date unknown |
oil on canvas |
|
Gatesville |
Joe DeYong |
"Off to Northern Markets" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Giddings |
Otis Dozier |
"Cowboys Receiving the Mail" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
| Goose Creek(formerly Dayton) | Barse Miller | "Texas" | 1938 | tempera |
|
|
Alexandre Hogue |
"Oil Fields of Graham" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Hamilton |
Ward Lockwood |
"Texas Rangers in Camp" |
date unknown |
fresco secco |
| Henderson(destroyed) | Paul Ninas | "Local Industries" | 1937 | fresco |
|
Hereford |
Enid Bell |
"On the Range" |
1941 |
wood relief |
|
Houston |
Jerry Bywaters |
"The Houston Ship Canal" |
1941 |
mural |
|
Houston at the Federal Courthouse |
Alexandre Hogue |
"Houston Ship Channel - Early History" |
1941 |
mural |
| Houston at the Federal Courthouse | William McVey | "Travis' Letter from the Alamo" | 1941 | tymstone sculpture |
| Houston at the Federal Courthouse | William McVey | "Sam Houston's Report on the Battle of San Jacinto" | 1941 | tymstone sculpture |
|
Jasper (moved to new USPO at 217 N. Bowie) |
Alexander Levin |
"Industries of Jasper" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
| Kaufman (covered over) |
Margaret A. Dobson | "Driving the Steers" | 1939 | fresco |
|
Kenedy |
Charles Campbell |
"Grist for the Mill" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Kilgore |
Xavier Gonzalez |
"Drilling for Oil" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Kilgore |
Xavier Gonzalez |
"Pioneer Saga" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Kilgore |
Xavier Gonzalez |
"Music of the Plaines" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Kilgore |
Xavier Gonzalez |
"Contemporary Youth" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
LaGrange |
Tom Lewis |
"Horses" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Lamesa |
Fletcher Martin |
"The Horse Breakers" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
Lampasas |
Ethel Edwards |
"Afternoon on a Texas Ranch" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Liberty |
Howard Fisher |
"Story of the Big Fish" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
|
Victor Arnautoff |
"The Last Crop" (incorrectly called "Cotton Pickers" until recently) |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
| Littlefield | William McVey | "West Texas" | 1948 | tymstone sculpture |
|
Livingston Police Department |
T. Van Soelen |
"Landscape Mural" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Livingston Police Department |
T. Van Soelen |
"Buffalo Hunting" |
1941 |
oil on canvas |
|
Lockhart |
John Walker |
"The Pony Express Station" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Longview |
Thomas Stell |
"Texas Farm Scene" |
date unknown |
oil on canvas |
|
Mart |
Jose Aceves |
"McLennan Looking for a Home" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
McKinney at the Collin County Historical Society |
Frank Klepper |
"Confederate Company Leaving McKinney" |
1934 |
unknown |
| Mineola article pdf (70kb) |
Bernard Zakheim | "New and Old Methods of Transportation" | 1938 | oil on canvas |
|
Mission |
Xavier Gonzalez |
"West Texas Landscape" |
date unknown |
oil on canvas |
|
Odessa |
Tom Lea |
"Stampede" |
1940 |
oil on canvas |
|
|
Jerry Bywaters |
"The Naming of Quanah" |
1938 |
oil on canvas |
|
Paris |
Jerry Bywaters |
"John Chisum, Davy Crockett" |
1934 |
oil on panel** |
|
Paris |
Jerry Bywaters |
"Paris Fire of 1916, Rebuilding" |
1934 |
oil on panel** |
|
Ranger |
Emil Bisttram |
"The Crossroads Town" |
1939 |
oil on canvas |
|
Robstown |
Alice Reynolds |
"Founding and Subsequent Development of Robstown, Texas" |
1941 |
mural |
| Rockdale | Maxwell Starr | "Industry in Rockdale" | date unknown | oil on canvas |
| Rosenberg (destroyed) | William Dean Fausett | "La Salle's Last Expedition" | 1941 | mural |
| Rusk | Bernard Zakheim | "Agriculture and Industry" | 1940 | tempera |
| San Antonio at the Federal Courthouse | Howard Cook | "San Antonio's Importance in Texas History" | 1939 | fresco |
| San Antonio at the Brady-Green Clinic | G.F. Newmann | "Autumn and Spring in the Hill Country" | 1934 | unknown |
| San Antonio at the Public Library | Mary Bonner | Title Unknown | 1934 | unknown |
| Seymour | Tom Lea | "Comanches" | 1942 | oil on canvas |
| Sherman at the Sherman Historical Museum | James Swann | "Music, Literature, and Painting" | 1934 | unknown |
| Smithville | Minette Teichmueller | "The Law - Texas Rangers" | 1940 | oil on canvas |
| Teague | Thomas Stell, Jr. | "Cattle Roundup" | 1940 | oil on canvas |
| Trinity | Jerry Bywaters | "Lumber Manufacturing" | 1942 | oil on canvas |
| Waco | E. Shonnard | "Cattle, Indians" | 1939 | wood reliefs |
| Wellington | Bernard Arnest | "Settlers in Collinsworth County" | 1940 | tempera |
All mural images depicted
on this site are used with permission
of the United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
*The information about these works was provided by Michael R. Grauer, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Art, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas
**This information is courtesy of the Paris Public Library: The four original panels are still in the Paris Publis Library on display in foyer/lobby along with another Bywaters work entitled "In the Library" that was given to the library by the Bywaters family. The panels have always been in the library, arriving in the fall of 1934. While they were part of the Post Office Section program Mr. Bywaters convinced the powers that be to give them to the library instead.
The above information was extracted from the THC publication (please note that additions from Democratic Vistas: Post Offices & Public Art in the New Deal by M. Park & G. Markowitz are in italics and were not part of the THC photo exhibition of post office murals).
Another source for information about the Texas Post Office murals is The Texas Post Office Murals: Art for the People by Philip Parisi (Texas A & M University Press, College Station, 2004).
Towns in which the murals are lost, painted-over, missing, removed, or destroyed: Austin, Baytown, Bryan, Childress, College Station, Commerce, Conroe, Corsicana, Dallas, Denison, Denton, El Paso, Fort Worth, Henderson, Houston, Kaufman, Lubbock, Marshall, Mineola, Rosenberg, San Antonio, and Wichita Falls. (source: Texas Historical Commission)
If you are interested in learning more about the Texas New Deal murals, please contact the Texas Historical Commission, The State Agency for Historic Preservation at: http://www.thc.state.tx.us. They have several pages on the Texas Historic Post Office Mural Preservation Program at: http://www.thc.state.tx.us/triviafun/trvmurals.html
© 2006 Nancy Lorance
All Rights Reserved.