The exhibition gives a brief history of the federal Section of Painting and Sculpture, which was established in the summer of 1934 "to secure suitable art of the best quality for the embellishment of public building," and then focuses on the histories of some of the 36 murals commissioned and executed for Indiana post offices that are in existence today. The exhibit is based on a 1995 IHS publication A Simple and Vital Design: The Story of the Indiana Post Office Murals, by John C. Carlisle with photographs by Darryl Jones.
The first mural installation in Indiana was Henrik Martin Mayer's two vertically oriented canvases, Sad News and Rural Delivery in July 1936 in Lafayette, while Marguerite Zorach's Hay Making, installed in Monticello in November 1942 was the last. The "boom years" were 1938 with 12 murals and 1939 with nine new art works in Indiana post office lobbies.
The Crawfordsville Post Office mural was created by Frank Long in 1942 and is titled Indiana Agriculture. It was the second to the last post office mural installed in Indiana in this program. The people depicted in the post office murals were occasionally specific figures, whether fictional like "The Raggedy Man," a James Whitcomb Riley character featured in Roland Schweinsburg's The Sleighing Party in Alexandria, or non-fictional such as Solon Robinson and Chief Mewonitoc in George Melville Smith's Crown Point mural From Such Beginnings Sprang the County of Lake.
"The other people shown may not be identifiable by name, but by type they represent the essence of the American scene concept," said Carlisle. "They are the farmers, the loggers, the railroad men, the pioneer mothers and the workers of our history."
The Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County will host this exhibit through September 8, 2012. Admission to the museum is free and the hours for walk-in visitors are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. The museum is located at 222 S. Washington Street in Crawfordsville and is handicap accessible. All ages are welcome.
Since 1830, the Indiana Historical Society has been Indiana's Storyteller™, connecting people to the past by collecting, preserving, interpreting and disseminating the state's history. A private, nonprofit membership organization, IHS maintains the nation's premier research library and archives on the history of Indiana and the Old Northwest. IHS also provides support and assistance to local museums and historical groups, publishes books and periodicals; sponsors teacher workshops; and provides youth, adult and family programming. (www.indianahistory.org)
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