Thursday, January 13, 2011

Go post office hopping!

During the Great Depression, Post Office Section Art was created by the government to put Americans back to work. Today, this artwork still appears in 21 active post offices. See a list of all 21 at 8 Wonders of Kansas.

Farm Life, 1940, artist Robert Larter. Oswego Post Office

Unlike WPA art, Section Art was funded by the Section of Fine Arts in the U.S. Treasury Department. The “Section” selected high quality art to decorate public buildings thereby making it accessible to all people. The subject of each usually was based on the history or economy of the local community. Originally, 29 Section Art works adorned Kansas public buildings.




Cattlemen's Picnic, 1942, artist Jessie Wilbur, Kingman Post Office



Cowboys Driving Cattle, 1941, artist Kenneth Evett, Caldwell Post Office



Cattle Round Up, 1938, artist Vance Kirkland, Eureka Post Office

Section Art remains in the following 21 Kansas post offices: Anthony, Augusta, Belleville, Burlington, Caldwell, Council Grove, Eureka, Fredonia, Goodland, Halstead, Herington, Hoisington, Horton, Hutchinson, Kingman, Lindsborg, Neodesha, Oswego, Russell, Sabetha, and Seneca.

Many of these post offices are older so it's like a trip to another era.

We hope this little tidbit about post office art helps you Get Kansas!

From the road, KE #2 Marci Penner

2 comments:

Moderator said...

For KS' 150th B-day we're attempting to travel to various places in the state this year...experiencing 150 different activities, or more (i.e. Sampler Fest, Castle Rock, Salt Museum, Cosmosphere, River Fest, Ms. Wheelchair Kansas Pageant). If you know of any thing we should see, or any good promos, please let us know. You can experience... our journeys and photos by following us at http://kansas150th-150thingstodoinkansas.blogspot.com/

big panda said...

Thiis was great to read