New Deal Art: "Small Town" by Ann Nooney

Above: "Small Town," a color lithograph by Ann Nooney, created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1939. Though several of her works can be found online, there seems to be hardly any information about Nooney's life in newspaper archives or the Internet, and not even her exact dates of birth and death seem to be known (though 1900-1970 is the most frequently offered span). As part of a 2016 art exhibition, a student from Murray State University wrote, "While there is little known about her life, she left behind a legacy of work that continues to provide a visual glimpse of American life during these times" ("Art for the People," February 25, 2016, accessed December 24, 2019). Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

New Deal Art: "The Steel Age" by Edna Reindel

Above: "The Steel Age," an oil painting by Edna Reindel (1894-1990), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1933-1934. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and Kristen Fusselle.

Above: The description for this photograph, ca. 1935-1938, reads, "Edna Reindel sits with her cat, Dozy, in front of a mural commissioned for the Fairfield housing project in Stamford, Connecticut by the [New Deal's] Treasury Relief Art Project. Dozy was a model for the mural." Reindel had a prolific and varied art career that included: teaching; book illustrations; a series of paintings published in Life magazine (depicting women in the national defense industries); artwork on the post-war atomic threat; and portraits of movie stars ("Artist's work showed her nuclear fears," Detroit Free Press, April 9, 1990, p. 2B). Photo by Iris Woolcock, provided courtesy of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

The New Deal's Bureau of Engraving and Printing Annex

Above: The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing Annex in southwest Washington, DC, located on 14th Street, between C and D Streets. Photo by Carol Highsmith, taken between 1980 and 2006, and provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The U.S. Treasury's 1936 fiscal year report noted: "On August 12, 1935, Congress authorized the construction of a new annex to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to be located on a site opposite the present building, on the east side of 14th Street, between C and D Streets SW. Plans for this building have been completed by the Procurement Division and a contract for its erection, at a cost of approximately $6,300,000, has been awarded" (p. 131). (The contract was awarded to John McShain, Inc., see, e.g., "Engraving Annex Again Under Way," Evening Star (Washington, DC), September 24, 1936, p. B-15).  

The U.S. Treasury's Procurement Division, in charge of the construction, had been created on October 9, 1933, per FDR's "Executive Order No. 6166... and subsequent executive branch actions" ("Public Buildings Branch," Living New Deal, accessed December 15, 2019).

In the Treasury's 1937 fiscal year report, the specific funding sources for the Annex (and other buildings) were described: "The present building program in the District of Columbia is being carried on with funds allotted to the [Procurement] Division by the Federal Emergency Administrator of Public Works [PWA] and from appropriations made direct to the Division" (pp. 183-184).

The Treasury's 1938 report also linked the Annex to the "Public Works Administration [PWA] program" (p. 54).

The Annex was completed in 1938. It provided over 600,000 square feet of additional work space for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing employees. It was described "as the largest reinforced concrete factory type structure in the world" at "523 feet long and 251 feet wide" with two basement levels, "seven stories, attic and penthouse." The building was also fitted with two tunnels, one to a freight station and one to the older, main Bureau of Engraving and Printing building across the street. The latter tunnel used a "pneumatic tube system." ("Engraving Annex Initiates Shift," Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 24, 1938, p. B-1).    

Above: In this photo, we see the Annex in the foreground, with the main Bureau of Engraving and Printing building on the left, the Central Heating Plant on the right (the building you see emitting steam or smoke), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture complex behind. Photo by Carol Highsmith, taken between 1980 and 2006, and provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: The Annex building, 1938. Harris & Ewing photo, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: Henry Morgenthau, FDR's Treasury Secretary, and Alvin Hall, the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, "discuss features of new Bureau of Engraving and Printing annex," 1938. Harris & Ewing photo, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: William H. Abbot was one of several landowners who were very reluctant to leave their homes to make way for the new Annex. After much bickering back and forth, the federal government had to employ its eminent domain powers to take the land, and leave with a court "a sum estimated by the Treasury to be 'full value,' leaving the final determination of the price for further action in condemnation proceedings" ("Property Owners Quitting Site of Engraving Annex," Evening Star (Washington, DC), September 21, 1936, p. B-1). Harris & Ewing photo, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

New Deal Art: Mural showing African American explorer Matthew Henson planting the American flag at the North Pole

Above: A mural of African American explorer Matthew Henson placing the American flag at the North Pole. The mural was created by Austin Mecklem (1890-1951), for the Recorder of Deeds building in Washington, DC. Mecklem created this mural while he was in the New Deal's Section of Fine Arts, 1943. A newspaper article from the time described the mural: "Mural for over-mantel decoration in library, subject, 'Commander Peary and Matthew Henson at the North Pole': While Peary was ill in the sleigh, as he discovered the North Pole, he directed Henson, a Negro, to place the American flag on an iceberg marking the location" (The Indianapolis Star, May 2, 1943). Mecklem's painting is one of seven New Deal murals in the Recorder of Deeds building, each depicting an important moment in African American history. Wikipedia has an interesting biography of Matthew Henson, here. Image courtesy of the Carol M. Highsmith and the Library of Congress.

WPA ice therapy

Above: A WPA nurse ices down the head of a patient suffering from a high fever, in New Orleans, ca. 1935-1943. The WPA nursing program helped millions of Americans. For example, between 1935 and 1941, WPA nurses in Passaic County, New Jersey "weighed and measured 12,732 children, assisted at 47,719 treatments, assisted physicians in making 7,697 physical examinations, conducted classroom examinations of 73,659 children, and made 4,000 home visits" ("What the WPA has done in this county in six years," The News (Paterson, New Jersey), December 20, 1941, p. 3). Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

New Deal Art: "Stone Crusher" by Edmund Lewandowski

Above: "Stone Crusher," a painting by Edmund Lewandowski (1914-1998), created while he was in the WPA, ca. 1935-1943. Lewandowski was a prolific artist, creating "more than 1,000 paintings and dozens of murals for corporations and federal buildings" and was "known for his paintings of the nation's industrial history" ("Muralist Edmund Lewandowski Dies," The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), September 13, 1998). Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Ackland Art Museum.

Above: WPA workers with a portable stone crusher in Garrett County, Maryland, 1938. Photo courtesy of the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

New Deal Art: "Mesquite Wood Train" by Frederick Grayson Sayre

Above: "Mesquite Wood Train," an oil painting by Frederick Grayson Sayre created while he was in the WPA, ca. 1937. Sayre was born in Medoc, Missouri in 1879, and was a mine worker before becoming an artist. He was an engraver in Texas, and then an illustrator in Chicago, before doctors advised him to move west for his health. He was then "inspired to paint desert scenes in New Mexico and Arizona" before building a home in Coachella Valley, in southern California. Sayre died on New Year's Eve, January 31, 1938. ("Desert Painter's Funeral Is Set," Arizona Republic, January 3, 1939.) Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Long Beach Museum of Art.

New Deal Art: "Pipe Plant" by Holland Foster

Above: "Pipe Plant," an oil painting by Holland Foster (1906-1984), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, ca. 1933-1934. Foster was working on his bachelor of arts degree at the University of Iowa when he painted "Pipe Plant." In the final report of the Public Works of Art Project, he was reported living in the "Field House Dormitory" in Iowa City at the time. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: A close-up view of the bottom-center portion of "Pipe Plant," which seems to show a person being picked up at work, or perhaps hitching a ride home. In a newspaper article about one of Holland Foster's art exhibitions, we read: "The artworks of Holland Foster reveal him to be a highly competent portrait and landscape painter... he now works out of his studio at 75 Country Club Lane in Woodstock" ("Portraits & Landscapes With Competent Skill From Holland Foster," The Kingston Daily Freemen (Kingston, New York), December 12, 1971).

Above: While working on his undergraduate and graduate art degrees at the University of Iowa, Holland Foster was an assistant to artist Grant Wood ("Foster rites," Iowa City Press-Citizen, July 19, 1984). Wood painted the famous "American Gothic" (above). Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago and Wikipedia.

Above: A great portrait painting by Holland Foster, indicating that he learned a thing or two from his 1930s mentor Grant Wood. Where is this painting today? Image from The Kingston Daily Freeman newspaper, 1971, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

WPA art classes for children in North Carolina

Above: This photo was taken between 1935 and 1943, and the description for it reads: "Children working at their easels in a child art class in the WPA Federal Art Gallery in Winston-Salem, N.C." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A WPA poster, advertising free WPA art classes for children. In the Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43 (1947), we learn that "Teaching in the Fine Arts and in the handicrafts was done by artists employed on the WPA art projects. The classes were conducted in community centers and settlement houses and sometimes in hospitals and other public institutions. The handicraft teaching included work in print making, metal crafts, pottery, puppet making, weaving, and costume design." Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

New Deal Art: "Cincinnati Industries"

Above: "Cincinnati Industries," an oil painting by William Harry Gothard (1908-1968), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1934. In addition to creating art, Gothard served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, became an expert in art preservation and restoration, worked in the Cincinnati Museum, and had a wife and two children ("William H. Gothard, Art Conservator," The Cincinnati Enquirer, January 21, 1968, p. 6-B). Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Above: A closer look at the center section of Gothard's "Cincinnati Industries," showing dairy & meat production, a power company, and musicians.

A New Deal for the Performing Arts: 1,121 new or improved bandshells and outdoor theatres

Above: The Castle Amphitheater in Provo, Utah, built by WPA workers, 1936-1937. Photo by Richard Walker, Creative Commons, 2019.

During the New Deal, the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) constructed 56 new "open-air theatres and amphitheatres" (and improved 26 others). Young Americans in the National Youth Administration built--or created additions to--276 "bandstands, bandshells, and outdoor theaters" (and repaired or improved 291 others). Meanwhile, WPA workers built 366 new bandshells and outdoor theatres (and reconstructed or improved 106 more). (Statistics from the final reports of each agency.)

These 1,121 projects only tell part of the story, however, because other New Deal agencies created such facilities too, for example, the Civilian Conservation Corps and, most probably, the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (unfortunately, New Deal statistics are not always well-documented or easily-accessible).

Considering all these New Deal facilities for the performing arts; and the thousands of performances given by the WPA's Federal Theatre Project, Federal Dance Project, and Federal Music Project; and also the many work-relief jobs offered to stage designers, lighting technicians, directors, actors, musicians, circus performers, etc., the New Deal was truly a revolutionary era in the history of the performing arts. It was a creative era that was of, by, and for the people - much more participatory than our modern art and entertainment culture.

Above: The outdoor theatre at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, created with the assistance of WPA and CCC workers. This photo is from a 1939 program for the The Lost Colony play (which can still be seen at Fort Raleigh today), courtesy of the National Archives.

New Deal Art: "Dehousing"

Above: "Dehousing," a lithograph by David Burke, created while he was in the WPA, ca. 1935-1943. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

New Deal Art: "Machine Fodder"

Above: "Machine Fodder," an artwork by Carl Hoeckner, created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1938. Hoeckner was born in Munich, Germany, in 1883, and died in Berkeley, California, in 1972. In 1939, the Artists' Union of Chicago proposed to add public art to Chicago's subway, and Hoeckner helped lead the effort: "Carl Hoeckner, easel painter and president of the union, and Edward Miller, muralist and chairman of the union's public use of art committee, pointed out that the New York City council had decided to shatter the gloom of underworld transportation with federal arts decorations in the new city owned subway." For Chicago's subway, the artists imagined "pony express riders and airplanes carrying the mail, workers swinging hammers in rhythm with the machine age, a group of nudes weaving a daisy chain, or perhaps a fawn drinking from a pool." ("Artists Propose To Light Gloom Of Our Subway," Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1939, p. 31). Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The progressive Squad of Four are the embodiment FDR's Four Freedoms, and they should fight the weak-kneed Pelosi Democrats every chance they get

Freedom of Expression - 

Above: Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib (D-Mich.) once said of Donald Trump, "We're going to impeach the motherfu&ker," and then refused to apologize. Because of that, she represent's FDR's "Freedom of Expression." Public domain photo, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Freedom of Religion - 

Above: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), is one of only two Muslim women to serve in Congress. For that, she represents FDR's "Freedom of Religion." Public domain photo, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Freedom from Want - 

Above: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) represents FDR's "Freedom from Want" because no member of Congress understands and highlights the struggles of the working class and poor better than she does. Public domain photo, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Freedom from Fear - 

Above: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) handles the death threats she receives with courage, saying: "Yes, I have experienced my share of death threats. I see it as par for the course, and consequential to the ways in which I legislate and govern, which many consider to be disruptive. When you have an administration that is fanning the flames of misogyny and xenophobia and white supremacy, someone like me---who looks like me, who leads like me, who talks like me--my very existence is the resistance. There are people that are offended just that I show up. Just that I exist." Pressley is also opposed to prioritizing military adventures over domestic needs (which gets to the heart of Roosevelt's Four Freedoms). For all of the above, Pressley is the embodiment of FDR's "Freedom from Fear." Public domain photo, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Above: A WPA poster of FDR's Four Freedoms, 1941. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Four Freedoms Speech

On January 6, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt said:

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."

The progressive Squad of Four vs. the lip-service, center-right, and Republican-appeasing Pelosi Democrats

Nancy Pelosi has never liked the Squad of Four, and now she's really pissed, because AOC's spokesman recently said that the "greatest threat to mankind" is the "cowardice of the Democratic Party."

But here's the deal: He's right. It's the cowardice of the modern Democratic Party that has delivered us into the hands of Trump and his empathy-free Fox News base. By always compromising and caving to Republicans, and by routinely squashing bold ideas for the common good, they have demoralized much of the electorate and have facilitated growing social unrest. And that social unrest has brought us the demagogue Trump.

And if the Pelosi Democrats get their way, Joe Biden will win the Democratic nomination for president. And if Lyin' J'Biden wins the Oval Office, his center-right policies will cause even more social unrest (Biden has backed tax cuts for the rich; job outsourcing; debt-relief restrictions on the middle-class & poor; bailouts for law-breaking financial institutions; and cuts to Social Security & Medicare).

The progressive Squad of Four should fight the Pelosi Democrats every chance they get.

The incredible lithographs of Mabel Wellington Jack

The following 5 lithographs were created by Mabel Wellington Jack, while she was in the WPA...

Above: "Speedboat," 1937. Image courtesy of Jon Bolton and the Racine Art Museum, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

Above: "Scoring," 1939. Image courtesy of the Newark Museum.

Above: "Swan Dive," ca. 1935. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Above: "The Tender," 1936. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Above: "Coal Hopper at 14th Street," 1938. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: Mabel Wellington Jack's signature, from her "Swan Dive" lithograph (and which can be seen on her other artworks too). The life story of Mabel Wellington Jack seems to have been lost in history; there's doesn't appear to be much information about her on the Internet or in newspaper archives. She lived from about 1899 to 1970 or 1975. Her "Swan Dive" lithograph is mentioned in the book Women, Art and the New Deal (Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene, 2015): "This symbolism of freedom through sports, representative of a new world into which women were propelling themselves also occurred in depictions of diving. In Swan Dive, Federal Art Project artist Mabel Wellington Jack used lithography to produce a stunning chiaroscuro image [an image with a strong contrast between light and dark] of a diver in mid-flight..." (p. 54).

New Deal Art: "Rope Skipper"

Above: "Rope Skipper," a wood engraving print by Burton Freund (1915-1968), created while he was in the WPA, ca. 1935-1943. Freund once said, "My desire is to capture and hold the excitement of a moment in movement..." Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

New Deal Art: "Exile"

Above: "Exile," a wood engraving by Misch Kohn (1916-2003), created while he was in the WPA, 1939. Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

A New Deal for our National Zoo: The WPA created larger, and more natural areas for the zoo animals

Above: WPA-constructed waterfowl ponds at the National Zoo (Washington, DC), 1940. Photo from the annual report of the National Zoo, fiscal year 1940.

Between 1935 and 1940, WPA workers created larger and more naturalistic areas for the animals at the National Zoo (Washington, DC). For example, a bigger cage and outdoor roaming area was created for giraffes and four new waterfowl ponds were created, "much larger than the old waterfowl yard..." In addition to larger areas, WPA workers also created more naturalistic environments. Instead of relying on cages & bars exclusively, moats were created to separate animals from zoo visitors. This was done in several areas, including the bison, camel, bear, and outdoor reptile exhibits. (Information and quote from the Zoo's various annual reports between 1935 and 1940.)

The idea of replacing cages & bars with moats started with Uraus Eggenschweiler (or Urs Eggenschwyler), and others, in the late 1800s / early 1900s. From the outset of the New Deal, these new ideas were put into place. For example, the Final Report of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) noted: "The Illinois report [on emergency work-relief] tells at length of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, built by the CWA and the Work Division [of FERA] according to the new zoo ideas of Uraus Eggenschweiler, who in Zurich was displeased with 'the paradox of portraying wildlife in cages and behind bars,' and who invented the 'concealed or partially concealed moat which presents an impassable barrier to the would-be escaping beasts, and no barrier to the eye of the observers'" (p. 95).

There will always be some controversy about the ethics of keeping animals in zoos; but at least the  New Deal helped create better day-to-day conditions for the animals.

A New Deal for our National Zoo: The Small Mammal House

Above: The Small Mammal House at the National Zoo (Washington, DC). This building was constructed with funds from the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA). Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

Above: The Small Mammal House under construction in 1936. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Above: A meerkat in the Small Mammal House. Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

Above: One of two Pied Piper aluminum artworks in the Small Mammal House, created by Domenico Mortellito (1906-1994), while he was in the New Deal's Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), 1936. Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

Above: The second of Mortellito's two Pied Piper aluminum artworks. Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

Above: A closer look at some of the detail on Mortellito's Pied Piper artwork. Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

Above: At the entrance of the Small Mammal House is a bronze statue of an anteater. It was created by Erwin Springweiler (1896-1968), and most probably as a commissioned artwork of the New Deal's Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture (see, "Statue to be Given," The Evening Star (Washington, DC), March 24, 1938, p. A-2). Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

A New Deal for our National Zoo: A better environment for the birds

Above: The Bird House at the National Zoo (Washington, DC) was built in 1928, a few years before the New Deal. The date of this photograph is unknown. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Above: In 1937, this addition to the Bird House was completed, with funding from the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA). Photo from the National Zoo's fiscal year 1937 report.

Above: Currently, the Bird House is undergoing renovations for a new exhibit experience. It's unclear if the 1937 PWA expansion still exists and, if it does, if it will be preserved during the renovation. But it's interesting to note that the Zoo specifically says "our 1928 Bird House" in the sign above. Do they mention the age as a matter of historic pride, or as an indication that it's time for something new to replace the old? Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

Above: A bird in the small mammal house, probably kept here because of the Bird House renovation. Photo by Brent McKee, June 2019.

Above: There was also New Deal art for the National Zoo's Bird House, such as this dodo bird artwork, carved by Domenico Mortellito and possibly designed by Elizabeth Fulda, both of whom were working at the Zoo with funds from the New Deal's Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), 1935-1937. Interestingly, Fulda also created artworks for the Bird House made out of zinc, but they've apparently been lost (see Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. DC-777-D, pp. 7-8). Photo from aforementioned HABS report.

Between 1933 and 1940, New Deal work programs made many improvements to the National Zoo's Bird House and surroundings. For example, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) installed a brick smokestack to replace a dilapidated metal smokestack, and also constructed a large flight cage for condors. The WPA constructed a pool and a waterfall, and also installed a water main and concrete walkways. And the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funds for a Bird House addition (photo above), a structure 43 ft. x 133 ft. and containing 27 new exhibits. (Information from various annual reports of the National Zoo.)