Post office murals offer a statewide art collection that is a reminder of the power of art to inspire and encourage a nation overwhelmed by the problems of the Great Depression.
Completed between 1933 and 1943, the mural project was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s economic programs to give tangible relief to the citizens of our country. The public art program was intended to bring high-quality art to communities, to lend support to artists, and to tell the American story.
A new book by a former staff member of the Texas Historical Commission has given the frozen faces of the Depression-era images a voice. The Texas Post Office Murals: Art for the People by Philip Parisi (Texas A&M University Press, $45) bridges the gap between coffeetable art book and travel guide while filling a void in regional art scholarship.
The book’s color reproductions bring the wall-sized paintings down to the reader’s lap where the creative works can be studied and admired as a complete body of work. The stories that accompany the pictures give even the faded pieces new life, and a map in the back of the book makes it easy to find the towns with post office murals. To complete the history lesson, Parisi even tracks down photographs of the eight paintings that have been lost or destroyed.
The works in the art project were paid for out of the portion of construction costs reserved for building decorations. Only post offices built during the period were eligible to receive the murals. The artists were selected by anonymous competition, which gave women and minority artists a fair chance to receive a commission.
According to Parisi, 48 states were included in the public arts project, and only three, including Texas, have documented the treasures in their post office lobbies. Texas, which originally received a total of 106 artworks in 69 locations, was second only to California in the number of installations. In all, the Public Works of Art Project commissioned about 15,660 works of art by some 3,750 artists around the country.
“I tried to create a permanent record,” Parisi said. Not only does the book show the paintings, but it also puts them in context of time and place with background stories of how they were produced.
The themes of the paintings were simple and direct, using recognizable Texas images, Parisi said during an interview from his office at Utah State University. Local icons were sometimes subtly included, like Old Rip, the horned toad of Eastland.
In most instances, the people’s art was enthusiastically accepted by the communities. At a time when few rural residents had ever seen examples of fine art, the murals became instant tourist attractions. Still, there were occasional disagreements. The folks in Anson, a “dry” town, objected to the image of a little brown jug in their mural of a cowboy dance.
The mural project came at a time when American painters were embracing a new style of art called American Scene. As a result, most of the colorful murals are based on American themes of regional history, agriculture, new industries, and local legends. The majority of the murals are oil paintings on canvas and are attached to the wall above the door to the postmaster’s office. A few, such as the 16-panel mural in San Antonio, were painted on wet plaster. Some, like those in Electra, Waco, and Littlefield, are not paintings at all, but relief sculptures.
Remarkably, only 16 of the 69 works have become unavailable for viewing in the last 60 years. Seven have been lost or destroyed, while the others have been moved into storage or are in locations that are no longer accessible to the public.
Many of the paintings have been restored through the efforts of local fundraising or moved to new locations in the community when the old post office was demolished. Considered the property of the federal government, a few of the murals have become the centerpiece of regional museums like those in Braham, Baytown, and Borger.
For more information on the post office murals around Texas, visit the Texas Historical Commission’s Web site at www.thc.state.tx.us/triviafun/trvmurals.html .
682nd in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
This article appears in July 9 • 2004.
