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The Murals:
The oil paintings on the west and east walls of this building were painted in 1942 by Petro Paul De Anna, an artist commissioned by the federal government as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
"Building of Ellicott Mills", on the east wall depicts the town's beginnings in 1772. It shows the town's founders, brothers John, Joseph, and Andrew Ellicott, clearing land for a mill, mixing mortar and building a house. The wagon is heading down a dirt trail which is likely the beginnings of the the first section of the Historic National Road between Baltimore and Howard County.
"Landscape of Ellicott City" on the west wall shows the town as it was in the early 1940s, when this post office building opened. Included are landmarks still visible today including the silos of the flour mill, the steeple of the old First Presbyterian Church, the Courthouse Dome and the old B&O train station. Also shown are the old Quaker meeting house, the Old Town Hall, bridges across the Patapsco River and mill workers' houses.
Ellicott City's murals are two of 16 New Deal murals painted for Maryland Post Offices. The first Maryland mural (now in storage) was entitled "Arrival of the Post, 1780." It was painted by Alexander B. Clayton for the Post Office in Elkton. Less than three miles east of here on Frederick Road in the Catonsville Post Office is another New Deal mural entitled "Incidents in the History of Catonsville" painted by Avery Johnson in 1942.
Artist "Pete" De Anna, graduated from Central High School in Washington DC at the age of 15. He continued his studies at DC's Corcoran Art Gallery. He won his first commission at age 18 in a competitive contest for another historical mural for the postoffice [sic] in Belmont, North Carolina. De Anna painted the Ellicott City murals in DC and they were installed with finishing touches made by the artist in February 1942.
New Deal Art in Post Offices:
President Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal sponsored several art programs to help get people back to work and restore confidence in a nation facing 25 percent unemployment in 1933.
From 1934 to 1943, the New Deal murals and sculpture seen in Post Offices were produced under the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts. Unlike the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project, with which is often is confused, this program was not directed toward providing economic relief. Instead, the art placed in Post Offices was intended to help boost the morale of people suffering the effects of the Great Depression with art that, in the words of President Roosevelt, was:
"... native, human, eager and alive -- all of it painted by their own kind in their own country, and painted about things they know and look at often and have touched and loved."
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt, "The Freedom of the Human Spirit Shall Go On," Address at the Dedication of National Gallery of Art, March 17, 1941
Artists competed anonymously in national and regional contests. Runners-up often received commissions for smaller buildings. After receiving a commission, an artist was encouraged to consult with the postmaster and other townspeople to ensure that the subject would be meaningful. |