New Deal/WPA Art In Virginia


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.

Unless indicated, works of art are located in the US Post Office building.

Location

Artist

Title

Date

Medium

Alta Vista

Herman Maril

"The Growing Community"

1940

oil on canvas

Appalachia

Lucile Blanch

"Appalachia"

1940

oil on canvas

Arlington*

Auriel Bessemer

"Historical and Industrial Scenes - Sketches of Virginia"

1940

7 panels - mural (restored - see article below)

Bassett

Walter Carnelli

"Manufacture of Furniture"

1939

fresco

Berryville

Edwin S. Lewis

"Clark County Products, 1939"

1940

mural

Bluefield

Richard Kenah

"Coal Mining"

1942

tempera

Chatham

Carson Davenport

"Harvest Season in Southern Virginia"

1938

oil on canvas

Christianburg

John W. de Groot

"Great Road"

1939

oil on canvas


Covington

Lenore Thomas

"Rural Life"

1939

three glazed terra-cotta reliefs

Emporia

Andree Ruellan

"Country Saw Mill"

1941

oil on canvas

Harrisonburg

William H. Calfee

"Country Fair, Trading Courthouse, Square"

1943

4 panels - mural

Hopewell

Edmund Archer

"Captain Francis Eppes Making Friends with the Appomatox Indians"

1939

oil on canvas

Luray

Sheffield Kagy

"Luray - 1840"

1939

oil on canvas

Marion

Daniel Olney

"The Letter"

1937

plaster

Newport News
Post Office and Courthouse

Mary B. Fowler

"Early Industries" and "Captain Newport Brings News and Aid to the Starving Colonists"

1943

unglazed terra-cotta

Orange

Arnold Friedman

"Upland Pastures"

1937

oil on canvas

Petersburg

William H. Calfee

"Agricultural Scenes in Virginia"

1937

oil on canvas

Petersburg

Edwin S. Lewis

"Riding to Hounds"

1937

mural

Phoebus

William H. Calfee

"Chesapeake Fisherman"

1941

fresco

Radford

Alexander B. Clayton

"The Return of Mary Draper Ingles"

1942

oil on canvas

Richmond, Parcel Post (to be relocated in the Federal Office Building, Richmond)

Paul Cadmus

"Pocahontas Rescusing Captain John Smith," "Sir Walter Raleigh," and "William Byrd"

1939

mural

Richmond, Parcel Post (to be relocated in the Federal Office Building, Richmond)

Jared French

"Stuart's Raiders at the Swollen Ford, " "Jeb Stuart," and "John Pelham"

1939

mural

Rockymount

Roy Hilton

"Life in Rockymount"

1938

3 panels - mural

Smithfield

William Abbott Cheever

"Captain John Smith Trading with the Indians"

1941

oil on canvas

Staunton

Florence Bessom

"The First Reaper"

1940

terra-cotta relief

Strasburg

Sarah Blakeslee

"Apple Orchard"

1938

mural

Stuart

John E. Costigan

"Receiving the Mail on the Farm"

1942

oil on canvas

Tazewell

William H. Calfee

"Sheep - Mother and Child - Cow" and "Mining"

1940

oil on canvas

Virginia Beach

John H.R. Pickett

"Old Dominion Conversation Piece"

1939

oil on canvas

All mural images depicted on this site are used with permission
of the United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Source:
Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal
by Marlene Park & Gerald E. Markowitz

*Arlington County's Public Art Program Announces Historic Murals Return Home - Arlington, Virginia


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