Sunday, July 15, 2018

New Deal Alaska Art (1/5): "Waterfront, Alaska" and "Sun and Raven" totem pole

Above: "Waterfront, Alaska," a painting by Austin Merrill Mecklem (1894-1951), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1939. According to a biography on Find A Grave, "Mecklem first studied at the University of Washington, then worked in the Treadwell gold mines in Juneau, Alaska for two years to pay tuition to the San Francisco School of Fine Arts." Image courtesy of the Newark Museum, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

Above: The description for this 1939 photograph reads, "The 'Sun and Raven Pole' of the Tlingit Indians restored by Indian CCC workers at Saxman Indian Village, Tongass National Forest." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: This photo shows the "Sun and Raven" totem pole before it was restored by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

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