New Jersey New Deal Art

New Deal/WPA Art in New Jersey

Post Office New Deal Artwork

Most of the Post Office works of art were funded through commissions under the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later known as The Section of Fine Arts) and not the WPA.

"Often mistaken for WPA art, post office murals were actually executed by artists working for the Section of Fine Arts. Commonly known as "the Section," it was established in 1934 and administered by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department. Headed by Edward Bruce, a former lawyer, businessman, and artist, the Section's main function was to select art of high quality to decorate public buildings if the funding was available. By providing decoration in public buildings, the art was made accessible to all people." from "Articles from EnRoute : Off The Wall: New Deal Post Office Murals" by Patricia Raynor

Unless indicated, works of art are located in the US Post Office building.

Location	Artist	Title	Date	Medium
Arlington	Albert Kotin	"The City" and "The Marsh"	1938	oil on canvas
Atlantic City	Peppino Mangravite	"Family Recreations" and "Youth"	1939	oil on canvas
Boonton	Enid Bell	"Morning Mail"	1939	wood relief
Bordentown	Avery Johnson	"Skating on Bonaparte's Pond"	1940	oil on canvas
Caldwell	Brenda Putnam	"Sorting the Mail"	1937	plaster lunette
Cliffside Park	Bruno Neri	"Rural Delivery"	1938	plaster relief
Clifton (to be placed in new post office building)	John Sitton	"Transportation"	1938	oil on canvas, six panels
Cranford	Gerald Foster	"The Battle of Cranford during the American Revolution"	1937	oil on canvas (funded by TRAP)
Fort Lee	Henry Schnakenberg	"Indians Trading with the Half Moon," "Washington at Fort Lee," "Moving Pictures at Fort Lee," and "The Present Day"	1941	oil on canvas
Freehold	Gerald Foster	"Molly Pitcher"	1936	tempera
Garfield	Robert Laurent	"Transportation of the Mail"	1937	sculpture
Glen Ridge	James Chapin	"Glen Ridge"	1938	oil on canvas
Gloucester City	Vincent D'Agostino	"The Perils of the Mail"	1937	oil on canvas
Haddon Heights	Isamu Noguchi	"The Letter"	1939	cast stone relief
Hammonton	Spero Anageros	"Harvest"	1940	sculpture (missing)
Harrison	Murray J. Roper	"Industry and the Family"	1940	plaster relief
Linden	Sahl Swarz	"Industry"	1940	terra-cotta
Little Falls	James Brooks	"Labor and Leisure"	1939	oil on canvas
Matawan	Armin A. Scheler	"Philip Freneau Freeing the Slaves," "Rural Mill," "Old Hospital," "Old Glenwood Institute," and "First Presbyterian Church, 1767"	1939	plaster reliefs
Metuchen	Harold Ambellan	"Gardeners"	1942	plaster relief
Millburn	Gerald Foster	"Revolutionary Engagement at Bridge in Millburn - 1780"	1940	oil on canvas (destroyed)
Mount Holly	Enid Bell	"The Post - 1790"	1937	wood relief
New Brunswick	George Biddle	"George Washington with De Witt, Geographer of the Revolutionary Army," "Wasington Retreating from New Brunswick," and "Howe and Cornwallis Entering New Brunswick"	1939	oil on canvas
New Brunswick	Ruth Nickerson	"The Dispatch Rider"	1937	sculpture
Newark, Post Office and Courthouse	Romuald Kraus	"Justice"	1938	bronze
Newark, Post Office and Courthouse	Vicken von Post Totten	two medallions representing light and darkness	1935
North Bergen	Avery Johnson	"Purchase of Territory of North Bergen from the Indians"	1942	oil on canvas
Nutley	Paul C. Chapman	"Return of Annie Oakley"	1941	mural
Paterson, Hawthorne Branch	Ilse Erythropel	"Postman and Hawthorne Bush"	1942	wood relief
Paulsboro	Nena de Brennecke	"Oil Refining"	1940	three wood reliefs
Penns Grove	Benjamin Hawkins	"Early Traders"	1942	cast stone
Pitman	Nathaniel Choate	"The Four Winds"	1937	plaster relief
Plainfield	Anton Refregier	figures from American folklore and "Quilting Bee"	1942	tempera
Pompton Lakes	A. Stirling Calder	"Benjamin Franklin"	1939	cast stone
Princeton	Karl Free	"Columbia under the Palm"	1939	oil and tempera on canvas
Ridgefield Park	Thomas Donnelly	"Washington Bridge"	1937	oil on canvas
Ridgewood	Romuald Kraus	two male and female figures	1940	metal reliefs
Riverside	John Poehler	"The Town of Progress - 1855"	1940	oil on canvas
Short Hills	Ernest Lawson	"Short Hills Landscape"	1939	oil on canvas (destroyed)
South Orange	Bernard Perlin	Family Scene	1939	oil on canvas
South River	Maurice Glickman	"Construction"	1943	wood relief
Summit	Fiske Boyd	"Arrival of First Train" and "Stage Coach Attack"	1937	mural (destroyed)
Toms River	Milton Hebald	"Boating on Barnegat Bay"	1941	sculpture (missing)
Trenton	Charles W. Ward	"Second Battle of Trenton," "Rural Delivery," and "Glass Manufacture"	1935, 1937	oil on canvas (funded by TRAP)
Washington	Frank D. Shapiro	"A Raising in Early New Jersey"	1940	oil on canvas
West New York	William Dean Fausett	"View From the Palisades - West New York 1939"	1939	oil on plywood
Westfield	Roy Hilton	"The New Stagecoach" and "Building of Westfield"	1939	oil on canvas
Westwood	Hunt Diederich	"Pegasus with Messenger"	1937	metal (destroyed)
Wildwood	Dennis Burlingame	"Activities of the Fishing Fleet"	1939	oil on canvas (2 panels)

All mural images depicted on this site are used with permission
of the United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Source:
Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal
by Marlene Park & Gerald E. Markowitz

Weequahic - "History of the Enlightenment of Man" in the Weequahic High School, Newark. The murals in the front lobby were dedicated in 1939. They were painted by Michael Lenson, the director for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), who also painted the murals at Newark City Hall.

Woodbridge - There are two WPA murals located in the auditorium of the Woodbridge High School that is now called Woodbridge Middle School (or the Barron Avenue School. The school was built in 1911 and was the high school until 1957. There are two murals, one on either side of the stage and, according to the school librarian, they are attributed to Carl C. Lella, circa 1935, and depict images of Abraham Lincoln, slavery, "freedom" and broken chains. Carl C. Lella lived in Colonia which is a section of Woodbridge (source: Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, 2nd ed, 1986.). Mr. Lella was a mural painter who painted murals in several Brooklyn high schools, among other places, and created a WPA mural at a school in Perth Amboy in 1936 (source: Star Ledger). Carl C. Lella's obituary appeared in the NY Times, Dec. 13, 1987. He was 88 when he died.

Home
E-mail Nancy