SOMERSET — Customers visiting a post office to purchase stamps or mail a package should take a look around. There may be more there than mail slots.
Three post offices in the region house top-notch artwork created during and after the Great Depression about 75 years ago.
The Johnstown, Somerset and Meyersdale post offices are three of 79 statewide and 1,350 across the nation where walls are adorned with artwork stemming from President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal plan to revitalize the U.S. economy.
Many pieces from Pennsylvania post offices are featured in a photo exhibit at The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg titled “A Common Canvas: Pennsylvania’s New Deal Post Office Murals.”
“You can squeeze a lot of history out of them,” said Curt Miner, senior curator at the museum.
“There is a story behind every one.”
The exhibit is open to the public and runs through May 17.
Two of the largest pictures in the collection are murals of trains and other forms of transportation on display at the Altoona post office. Another piece, a plaster relief of the Constitutional Convention, is from the Everett post office.
Also part of the exhibit is a richly colored, almost three-dimensional mural of farm life that hangs inside the Somerset post office.
Painted in 1941 at a cost of $1,300, the oil and canvas mural was restored in 2005 at a cost of $5,200, said Dallen Wordekemper, federal preservation officer for the U.S. Postal Service.
Meyersdale has a plaster relief of five workers titled “Harvesters at Rest.” It was created in 1940 at a cost of $700.
The work in Johnstown is a black, polished granite relief featuring two eagles.
It was installed in 1937 and cost $450, Wordekemper said.
The works were commissioned only for post offices under construction or renovation. Artists were paid 1 percent of the total project cost.
Pennsylvania originally had 88 pieces; nine have been lost due to a variety of reasons, Miner said.
Nationwide there originally were 1,200 murals and 300 sculptures.
Each was designed with community input and close scrutiny from the U.S. Treasury Department.
“They tried to make it a program that was important to that community,” Wordekemper said.
The process and final product were considered a step above other Works Progress Administration-era art projects commissioned for public schools, hospitals and county courthouses, Miner said.
Two WPA murals titled “Justice” and “Knowledge” hang in the second floor of Cambria County’s courthouse.
Of all the murals painted for Pennsylvania post offices, the one in Somerset stands out, Miner said.
“Somerset is the most controversial mural in our collection,” he said.
Artists’ sketches of the late-summer harvest scene sparked anger among some Somerset County Republicans who claimed the man behind two plow horses was J. Buehl Snyder, a New Deal Roosevelt Democrat.
The controversy prompted the Treasury Department to issue a policy that no artist could use an image of a living person.
“But I’m convinced it was him,” Miner said.
While the murals and reliefs have hung in post offices for 75 years and often are overlooked by daily customers, they continue to be a point of interest for many.
“We get an enormous response from the public,” Wordekemper said.
The public and postal employees serve as his eyes and ears, sending him regular e-mails on the condition of the pieces.
Local News
Related Photos
-
This mural of farm life at the Somerset post office is one of many created under a New Deal program that put artists to work. John Rucosky
Discussion
Harrisburg museum delivers collection of post office art
- Local News
-
-
Johnstown man charged with giving fatal Methadone dose to girlfriend
A Johnstown area man has been charged in the death of his girlfriend, who died in August from an illicit drug that he allegedly gave to her while she was a patient at Indiana Regional Medical Center.
-
Somerset County teacher accused of using insulting names
School board members and administrators say they’re still investigating whether a teacher called her eighth- and ninth-grade algebra students names like “retard,” “idiot” and “moron.”
-
Seward tax preparer set to plead in federal court
A Westmoreland County tax preparer is scheduled to plead guilty or no contest to charges that he filed fraudulent income tax returns for his customers and asked some of them to lie to Internal Revenue Service investigators.
-
Blogging with heart
Anyone else have this issue: The more I know, the more I want to learn.
As I am writing my heart month stories for this week’s packages, I occasionally come across a term or description unfamiliar to me. So I look it up. And then the definition or article has something else that sounds important, so I look that up. -
Police probing financial irregularities at Indiana County parish
State police say they’re investigating financial “irregularities” at a Catholic parish with five worship sites in Indiana County, after the local diocese reported the problems to police.
-
Video: Young bear, wolf play together
It’s like something out of a children's book: A bear cub meets a wolf cub and they become the best of friends. Even though they are different species and ferocious predators, the unlikely couple stays pals for life.
-
Two Cambria district judge offices to be cut
Two of Cambria County’s 10 magisterial districts could be eliminated as President Judge Timothy Creany looks at realigning boundaries to cut costs while taking into consideration caseloads of the district judges and population changes.
-
Westmont couple inseparable, even in death
People who knew James and Marjorie Landis of Westmont said the two were nearly always together.
-
Company buys valuables from people ready to unload
Jan Hagerich’s buffalo nickel was “healthy” – which was unhealthy for her finances.
-
Special Olympics return to region
More than 300 athletes eager to show off their skills, along with 135 coaches, will be coming to the region to take part in the 2012 Special Olympics Pennsylvania Winter Games.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Johnstown man charged with giving fatal Methadone dose to girlfriend
Obama Gives Education Waivers to 10 States
Giffords Aide to Run for Her Seat
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
Winter Slamming North Asia, Parts of Europe
Syrian Forces Renew Bombardment of Homs
States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-abuse Settlement
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Raw Video: U.S. Pullout Celebration
Raw Video: Annual Empire State Building Run-Up
Man Killed in Courthouse Shootout
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
Ga Girl Fights Off Kidnapper at Walmart
Nevada Highway Patrol, City Settle Beating Case
Homs Bombardment Continues, Global Outcry Grows
Raw Video: Dog Rescued From Icy Colo. Water
Skip the Coffee Cup and Inhale Your Caffeine Fix
