Kewaunee Post Office: Fodder for a Novel

 

*The above image is from Smithsonian American Art Museum, online. See notes below.

 If author Charles Frazier had set his new book on Lake Michigan rather than in a small Wyoming ranching town, his novel The Trackers could have been set in Kewaunee.

Valentine Welch lll, Fraizer’s fictional character, is a painter chosen for the New Deal art project. Welch is one of the eras’ 850 men and women selected to create a mural in a post office or library. If the story had taken place in Kewaunee, it would have been Mark Faulkner brushing on the paint for the post office mural.

The fictional Val Welch explains that such paintings needed to fit a specific space in a small office, and that space was generally above the postmaster's office door. History tells us that to find a subject for the murals, artists poured over old photographs, went through local histories, and read the articles others were writing as part of the Federal Writers' Project. Welch tell us - as does history - that painting and writing were part of Works Progress Administration, or WPA, to which some referred as "We piddle about." WPA came out of the Depression as a way of providing artists, writers, and laborers with a means to earn money and thus put food on the table. Painters were paid after each stage of their process was approved.

In her 1997 article found at https://postalmuseum.si.edu/off-the-wall-new-deal-post-office-murals, Patricia Raynor writes that the murals were produced through the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (Treasury Relief Act Project) in a commission-driven program based on quality. Raynor points out how the program contrasted with the work-relief mission of WPA "which is often mistakenly used to describe all New Deal art, including the post office." New Deal artwork is a more accurate term to describe the works of art created under the federal art programs of that period.

As the "We piddle about" suggests, there was criticism in the support of the federal art projects. As Ms. Raynor points out, FDR's relief administrator Harry Hopkins was quoted saying, "artists have got to eat just like other people."

Between 1934 and 1943, 1,371 murals were painted in post offices across the U.S. The 850 artists included 162 women and three African americans. Such paintings were to "boost the morale of the American people suffering from the effects of the Depression by depicting uplifting subjects the people knew and loved." Selected artists were to paint a realistic scene in an American style rather than modern or abstract art which were discouraged. The controversial and tragic were to be avoided. Artists were commissioned through competitions and were paid as part of the cost of new post office construction, one percent of the cost being slated for the artistic improvements. Existing federal buildings were also in line for art, however that program was in effect for a shorter time, 1935-1938.

Today – well over 80 years since the murals were painted – there is an effort to preserve them. Some murals have disappeared, others have deteriorated, and there are places where the art is worth far more than the buildings. Kewaunee post office mural is a treasure and its patrons are among the fortunate.

How did the postal murals come about? WPA was one of Depression era alphabet soup agencies in place to bolster the U.S. economy. President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew the American spirit was also in need of lifting when he said, “Always the heart and soul of our country will be the heart and soul of the common man.” For that he looked toward the arts. And, Kewaunee was a beneficiary.

Postmaster William Wright announced in the April 14, 1939, edition of the Enterprise that Kewaunee was chosen to have a mural painted in its new post office. The Section of Fine Arts of the Treasury Department notified Wright that Chicago artist Paul Faulkner had been invited to present a design for the large painting which would be painted on the interior wall of the office.

Faulkner won the preliminary mural competition and wrote to Wright, asking for ideas for the mural. Wright asked for community input while local historian Henry Baumeister assisted him in gathering material.

According to a late September article in Algoma Record Herald, during the previous week artist Paul Faulkner had begun chiseling away at the new plaster on the west wall of Kewaunee’s post office. Faulkner’s design was a winter scene of men with skis and another group on a toboggan. Faulkner felt the work would take about two months.

The Enterprise said the fresco painting was probably a first in Wisconsin post offices. Explaining the process, the paper told readers,  “a small amount of plaster, five coats thick, is applied to the wall at a time and the coloring is applied while the wall is still wet. By a technical combination of chemicals in the plaster, the color and the air, the finished painting becomes part of the plaster and produces a very rich and unusual effect.”

Editor John Read Karel went on to say that the picture was not what Kewaunee expected. The winter scene portrayed a ski jump and a group of men with skis while another group was preparing to go downhill on a toboggan. The hill overlooked a valley in which there was a river with perfectly straight shorelines on which ice skaters were having a “swell time.” A factory was part of the background. Karel felt the scene was just a typical winter scene of almost anywhere but not Kewaunee. As one wag was heard to quip, “Kewaunee of all places gets a picture of a hill full of ski jumpers?”

Artists drew criticism when the planned murals were not an accurate description of a specific city, prompting The Section to encourage design changes, thus eliminating what might be typical of another area and therefore offending local citizenry. Tongue-in-cheek, Editor Karel suggested that a Florida beach scene would be appropriate for patrons coming out of a howling blizzard, but Faulkner said the Treasury Department approved the scene and “that’s that.”

Postmaster Wright announced the official unveiling of “Winter Sports” during an open house in the post office lobby on Thanksgiving afternoon, November 30. The paper went on to say that Faulkner was putting the finishing touches on the mural which was by then known to be the first of its kind in Wisconsin. During the open house, Faulkner would be present to explain the mural and the process used in creating it. Just as the fictional Val Welch’s work in Dawes, Wyoming, Faulkner’s work created substantial interest among the boxholders who followed the work day-by-day. Welch’s observers came in to see him working on the scaffold while Postmaster Wright said anybody doubting the project could come to the post office to see the artist on the job.

Wright encouraged residents and those in the vicinity to walk off their Thanksgiving dinners by coming to the post office to examine the fresco and talk with Faulkner. Then the Kewaunee post office announced expanded hours from the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving through the holiday season. Expanded Saturday hours – till 6 PM – would provide additional services to Christmas mailers as well as offering opportunities for the public to drop in to see the 8’ x 26” mural.

Kewaunee’s post office was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in October 2000. Accessing https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/Hl26594 will bring up information about the building, its setting, architect, post office hierarchy and more. A renewed interest in Depression-era murals offers a glimpse into American heritage in a time that was. Many of them have vanished in the 80-plus years while others are deteriorating.

And, Paul Faulkner? Wikipedia reports that Paul W. Faulkner was an American artist born in North Platte, Nebraska, on April 2, 1913. He graduated from the University of  Nebraska and received his master's degree from the Chicago Art Institute. Faulkner taught at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, the Norwich Free Academy in Connecticut, and worked at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He died in Connecticut in January 1997.

NOTES:

*americanart.si.edu/artwork/winter-sports-mural-kewaunee-wisconsin-post-office-35951. The website verbiage is as follows: Paul Faulkner, Winter Sports (mural study, Kewaunee, Wisconsin Post Office 1939, tempera on fiberboard, image 8' x 26" (20.c x 66.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum. Transfer from General Services Administration, 1974.28.346."

uca.edu/postofficemurals/ says “endearing images” transformed the post offices into a “truly democratic art gallery.” It goes on to say that “Americans searched for images that could serve as beacons of hope during a time of economic and emotional despair.” The artwork was designed to provide work for the unemployed and destitute.

Wikipedia says Faulkner did the painting in 1940. Algoma Record Herald and Kewaunee Enterprise chronicle Faulkner’s work from April to December 1939.

 SOURCES:

Algoma Record Herald

americanart.si.edu/artwork/winter-sports-mural-kewaunee-wisconsin-post-office-35951

 Frazier, Charles, The Trackers, New York, NY, Harper Collins Publishers, 2023.

Kannerwurf, Dr. Karl, Patricia Sharpe & Virginia Johnson, Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County, Sturgeon Bay, WI, Silverdale Press, 2010.

https://daily.jstor,org/uwos-post-office-murals/ The paintings were egg-tempera-on-plaster which fictional Val Welch describes.

Kewaunee Enterprise 

 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/off-the-wall-new-deal-post-office-murals; article by Patricia Raynor, Vol 6, Issue 4, October-December 1997

Roosevelt, Franklin, Campaign Address at Cleveland, Ohio, November 2, 1940, Roosevelt Public Papers, New York, 1941, accessed online.

Wikipedia

https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI26594