Sunday, December 24, 2017

A New Deal Winter & Christmas: "Christmas Eve, Taos Pueblo," and FDR's last Christmas message

Above: "Christmas Eve, Taos Pueblo," an etching by Gene Kloss (1903-1996), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project and/or Federal Art Project, ca. 1934-1936. Kloss was a prolific artist and "Her work graces scores of major private collections here and abroad as well as the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Institution, The Carnegie Institute, The San Francisco Museum of Art, The Library of Congress and the National Academy of Design" (Gene Kloss, Taos Fine Art). Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the New Mexico Museum of Art.

"It is not easy to say 'Merry Christmas' to you, my fellow Americans, in this time of destructive war... This generation has passed through many recent years of deep darkness, watching the spread of the poison of Hitlerism and Fascism in Europe, the growth of imperialism and militarism in Japan, and the final clash of war all over the world... We pray that with victory will come a new day of peace on earth in which all the Nations of the earth will join together for all time. That is the spirit of Christmas, the holy day. May that spirit live and grow throughout the world in all the years to come."

--President Franklin Roosevelt's last Christmas address to the nation, December 24, 1944.

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