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2
Federal Art Projects in/from Alaska
Section of Fine Arts - 1937
thru 1946
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Artists,
Artisans, Showrooms, Studios, Galleries,
Murals |
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WPA Poster
Art |
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During the 1930s, as part of FDR's New Deal programs to
ease the country out of Great Depression, the Works
Progress Administration (WPA) hired many noted American
artists. On the US entry into World War II, several WPA
artists took work with the War Department. A few of
these artists made their way to Alaska to help document
the Aleutian Campaign and other Alaskan military
operations, including the new
Alaska Territorial Guard. Some of their work was
featured nationwide on a number of wartime posters. Click photo for
closer view |
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Magnus Colcord "Rusty"
Heurlin - An ATG lieutenant, his painting was reproduced
as the posters:
"
From Metlakatla to Barrow - The Territorial Guard" & "
Back the Attack" |
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Click photo for
closer view |
Henry Varnum Poor:
"
Major Muktuk Marston Signs Up Soldiers"
now hangs
in the Pentagon's Hall of Fame |
Joe Jones:
"
Signing
Eskimos into The Alaska Territorial Guard" |
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Section of Fine Arts -
Alaska Art Project
(mistakenly referred to as WPA) |
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Lost Mural/Painting:
"Alaskan Fishing Village
Dawn", 1937, Karl Fortess (New
York) |
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Wrangle Post Office -
"Old Town in Alaska" Austin Mecklem & Marianne Appel (husband
& wife) 1943 |
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"Street in Ketchikan" -
Prescott M.M. Jones (Massachusetts), WPA Alaska Project,
1937, Book Cover Photo |
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Anchorage Post Office & Courthouse - Arthor: T.
Kerrick "Alaskan Scenes" - 1946 |
The Anchorage Post Office (now the
Public Lands Information Center) mural has been painted
over.
The mural in the Anchorage Courthouse still exists.
Court hearings are public, so you can see it any time
court is in session.
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"Alaskan Fishing Village
Dawn"
"Street in Ketchikan"
"Old Town in Alaska" - 2 Panels
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The artists left
Seattle in June 1937, arrived in Ketchikan 4 days later.
The artists were
divided into four groups:
#1 - Edwin Boyd Johnson (Chicago, IL), Vernon Smith (Mass) & Prescott M.M.
Jones (Mass);
#2 - Mr/Mrs Austin Mecklem (NY), Mr/Mrs Merlin Pollock (Chicago, IL), & Mr/Mrs
John Walley (Chicago, IL);
#3 - Karl Fortess (Woodstock, NY), Roland Mousseau (Woodstock, NY) &
Ferdinand Lo Pinto (NY);
#4 - Arthur Kerrick (Minn), Tony Mattei (NY), & Carl Saxild (Mass)
Each group was sent to various sites in the state.
Due to a governmental fear of
adverse publicity because of the depression, the works of the Alaska Art Project
were dispersed to schools and public facilities
throughout the U.S.
Apparently there are nine pieces which are still in the
Governor's Mansion collection in Juneau, AK. Some of the
paintings were sent to the McKinley Park Hotel where in
September 1972 a fire destroyed all of the artwork. Over
100 paintings were lost.* |
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More information on this project
at: Smithsonian: National Postal Museum |
* Source: "Works Progress Administration's Alaska Art
Project 1937 - A Retrospective Exhibition,"
by Lynn
Binek, Karl E. Fortess, and Merlin F. Pollock, Anchorage
Museum of History and Art (1987) |
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