Description: This photograph is a black-and-white image of a colorful mural titled "Pioneers Crossing the Ohio River," painted in 1941 by artist Michael Loew (1907-1985). The mural depicts a group of pioneers, a covered wagon, and an ox crowded together on a raft. Behind them is a body of water with hills in the background. From the rear, several men are using long poles to propel the raft forward, while in the front a young man is pulling on a rope with all of his strength to move the raft forward. Several women, one of whom is holding an infant, are grouped in the center next to the wagon, ox, a plow, and yoke. The mural, painted in oil on canvas, is located in the former post office building in Amherst, Ohio. It measures 4-1/8 feet high by 14 feet long. The mural was funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Painting and Sculpture, one of the department’s three visual arts programs instituted during the Great Depression. Established in 1934, the Section of Painting and Sculpture commissioned artists to create paintings and sculpture that would decorate new federal buildings. The commissions were awarded competitively. Unlike other cultural programs of the New Deal, the Section’s primary goal was to procure art for public buildings, not to provide work relief. Born in New York City, artist Michael Loew was an abstract expressionist whose early works were representational, including the murals he painted for the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture. He studied at the Art Students League from 1926-1929 and worked as a stained-glass artist. He studied art in Paris from 1929-1930. In 1939 he had painted murals for the New York World’s Fair with his close friend and fellow artist, Willem de Kooning. By this time his style was shifting toward abstract expressionism. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Loew studied at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art from 1947-1949 and at the Atelier Fernand Leger from 1949-1950. Between 1956 and 1966, he taught painting at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, and at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 1988 photographer Connie Girard took color and black-and-white images of this mural for an article in "Timeline" magazine (June/July 1989). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04494
Subjects: Mural paintings (visual works); Post office buildings--Ohio; United States. Works Progress Administration; United States. Department of the Treasury. Section of Painting and Sculpture; Loew, Michael, 1907-1985; Great Depression and the New Deal
Places: Amherst (Ohio); Lorain County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption on reverse reads: "The Thinker - Cleveland Art Museum (1). Cleveland, Ohio." The inscription on the plaque reads: "The Thinker by Auguste Rodin, gift of Ralph King." The statue outside the Cleveland Museum of Art was badly damaged by vandalism in 1970 and is displayed in its unrepaired state. The Thinker (the original) is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin held in the Musée Rodin in Paris. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. Over twenty monumental size bronze casts of the sculpture are in museums around the world. In addition there are sculptures of different study size scales and plaster models in both monumental and study sizes. There are some newer castings that have been produced posthumously and are not considered part of the original production. Originally named The Poet, the piece was part of a commission by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris to create a monumental portal to act as the door of the museum. Rodin based his theme on The Divine Comedy of Dante and entitled the portal The Gates of Hell. Each of the statues in the piece represented one of the main characters in the epic poem. The Thinker was originally meant to depict Dante in front of the Gates of Hell, pondering his great poem. The sculpture is nude, as Rodin wanted a heroic figure in the tradition of Michelangelo, to represent intellect as well as poetry. Rodin made a first small plaster version around 1880. The first large-scale bronze cast was finished in 1902, but not presented to the public until 1904. It became the property of the city of Paris – thanks to a subscription organized by Rodin admirers – and was put in front of the Panthéon in 1906. In 1922, it was moved to the Hôtel Biron, which was transformed into a Rodin Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum situated in Wade Park, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. The Cleveland Museum of Art has remained historically true to the vision of its founders, being the only major American museum keeping general admission free to the public View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F10_045_1
Subjects: Bronze sculpture; Art museums--United States; Cleveland Museum of Art; Rodin, Auguste, 1840-1917. Thinker
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph is a black-and-white image of a colorful mural titled "Mail—The Connecting Link’," painted in 1938 by artist Sally F. Haley (1908-2007). The mural depicts the significant role that mail (and the postal service) plays in the life of individuals and of the entire nation. Three human figures (a mail carrier, a woman, and a little girl) occupy the center of the image, forming a triangular space that divides the background between urban and rural settings. The mail carrier is delivering a letter to the woman as the little girl watches. Bags of mail travel to distant locations via trains (rural areas and small towns) and boats (large urban areas). On the left side the mural, a railroad signal bears the number “1938,” the year that Haley painted the mural. The mural, painted in oil on canvas, is located in the McConnelsville, Ohio, post office. It measures 5 feet high by 17 feet wide. The mural was funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Painting and Sculpture, one of the department’s three visual arts programs instituted during the Great Depression. Established in 1934, the Section of Painting and Sculpture commissioned artists to create paintings and sculpture that would decorate new federal buildings. The commissions were awarded competitively. Unlike other cultural programs of the New Deal, the Section’s primary goal was to procure art for public buildings, not to provide work relief. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Sally Haley was the daughter of Elizabeth Akers Haley and John P. Haley, a portrait photographer. John Haley was a friend of photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. Two of Sally’s brothers also became artists. In 1931, Sally Haley graduated from Yale University with a bachelor of fine arts degree. She taught art in a Bridgeport high school for two years, studied art in Germany for a few months, and then returned to the U.S. to paint full time. In 1935 she married artist Michele Russo, and the couple lived in Connecticut until 1947, when they moved to Portland, Oregon. Haley was very active in the Portland art scene, and her paintings were widely praised. She died in 2007 at age 99. In 1988 photographer Connie Girard took color and black-and-white images of this mural for an article in "Timeline" magazine (June/July 1989). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04495
Subjects: Mural paintings (visual works); Post office buildings--Ohio; United States. Department of the Treasury. Section of Painting and Sculpture; Great Depression and the New Deal; McConnelsville (Ohio)
Places: McConnelsville (Ohio); Morgan County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph is a black-and-white image of a colorful mural titled "Drift toward Industrialism,” painted in 1937 by artist Karl Anderson (1874-1956). The mural, also known as “Exodus to the Cities,” is located in the former post office building in Bedford, Ohio. The building now houses the offices of Doty & Miller Architects, 600 Broadway Avenue. As seen in the photograph, the mural surrounds an office door. The mural portrays the widespread migration of workers, families, and young people from small towns and rural areas to large industrial cities during the late 19th century. In the lower left corner, a bearded farmer stands behind a horse-drawn plow and raises his right arm in farewell to the stream of people headed toward a cityscape visible in the background. A young girl clutches her mother’s arm and looks back at the place she is leaving and to which she’ll probably never return. An older mother embraces her daughter while an elderly man dressed in a Civil War uniform sits morosely on the sidelines. Karl Anderson was born Carl James Anderson in Morning Sun, Ohio. His parents, Irwin M. and Emma Anderson, and their family of seven children lived in various communities in the state but eventually settled in Clyde (Sandusky County). Karl’s younger brother Sherwood, the noted American author, based his famous short-story collection "Winesburg, Ohio" on his memories of life in Clyde. Karl Anderson became a noted painter, illustrator, and engraver. The mural was funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Painting and Sculpture, one of the department’s three visual arts programs instituted during the Great Depression. Established in 1934, the Section of Painting and Sculpture commissioned artists to create paintings and sculpture that would decorate new federal buildings. The commissions were awarded competitively. Unlike other cultural programs of the New Deal, the Section’s primary goal was to procure art for public buildings, not to provide work relief. The post office in West Haven, Connecticut, features the second of two murals that Karl Anderson created for the program. Anderson died in 1956 in Westport, Connecticut, where he had lived since 1912. Nicknamed “the Dean of Westport Painters,” he was part of the thriving arts community there. In 1988 photographer Connie Girard took color and black-and-white images of this mural for an article in "Timeline" magazine (June/July 1989). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04496
Subjects: Anderson, Karl, 1874-1956; Mural paintings (visual works); Post office buildings--Ohio; United States. Department of the Treasury. Section of Painting and Sculpture; Great Depression and the New Deal; Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
Places: Bedford (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph is a black-and-white image of a colorful mural titled "New London Facts,” completed in 1941 by artist Lloyd R. Ney (1893-1965). The oil-on-canvas mural, which measures 5 feet high by 14 feet wide, is located in the New London, Ohio, post office. The mural was funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Painting and Sculpture (the "Section"), one of the department’s three visual arts programs instituted during the Great Depression. Established in 1934, the Section commissioned artists to create paintings and sculpture that would decorate new federal buildings. The commissions were awarded competitively. Unlike other cultural programs of the New Deal, the Section’s primary goal was to procure art for public buildings, not to provide work relief. Ney went to New London to learn as much as possible about the town, its history, and residents. Although Ney favored Modernism, he decided to forego a purely nonobjective design in favor of one that incorporated recognizable places, people, and objects as well as abstractions. A boldly outlined center triangle divides the mural into three sections. The individual sections and the overall mural functions as a montage of images. The triangle’s design, which includes an eye, is reminiscent of the Great Seal of the United State. Painter and sculptor Lloyd Raymond (“Bill”) Ney) was born in Friedensburg, Pennsylvania, the only child of Sadie Maidenford and William Ney. As a young child he showed a passion for art but had no formal training until he left high school in 1913 to study in Philadelphia and later in Europe at the end of World War I. While studying abroad, he became acquainted with influential Modernist painters, and his style became progressively more abstract throughout the rest of his life. He left Paris in 1925 and moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where he joined a thriving community of modernist artists. In 1939, Ney was awarded a commission from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Painting and Sculpture (the “Section”) to paint a mural for the New London, Ohio, post office. When upper-level Section officials saw Ney’s preliminary sketches for the mural, they were upset by what they termed his “abstract” style and quickly rejected his design. Ney fought hard for his concept and enlisted the help of the New London community, whose outpouring of support convinced the Section to approve Ney’s design in 1940. The mural was completed and installed in the New London post office in 1941. Lloyd Ney died in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in 1965. In 1988 photographer Connie Girard took color and black-and-white images of this mural for an article in "Timeline" magazine (June/July 1989). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04497
Subjects: Ney, Lloyd Raymond, 1893-1965; New London (Ohio); Mural paintings (visual works); Post office buildings--Ohio; United States. Department of the Treasury. Section of Painting and Sculpture; Great Depression and the New Deal
Places: New London (Ohio); Huron County (Ohio)
 

Description: Taken in 1971 by U.S. Army medic Charles Tweel during the Vietnam War, this photograph shows a sculpture of a man wearing elaborate clothing and armor, carrying a sword over his shoulder, possibly a military, political, or religious figure. This photograph is part of the Charles Tweel Collection (AV 324) at the Ohio History Connection. Charles Tweel grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and attended The Ohio State University. After graduation in 1968, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a non-combatant, first training as a medic at Fort Sam Huston, followed by nine months of additional training at Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He finished his training as a Specialist 3 and 91C, MOS, and went on to serve in Bamberg, Germany, with combat engineers for one year. In January 1971, Tweel served in Vietnam with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion (Air Mobile), 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, based out of Camp Evans near Phu Bai, north of Hue, until December of that year. Tweel spent most of his service on various firebases as the medic in charge, and occasionally shared firebases with South Vietnamese soldiers. He also visited MedCAP stations (Medical Civic Action Programs) where he treated civilians. Tweel received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement, and was promoted to Specialist 5 in 1971. After discharge from the Army, he went to medical school and was in private practice as a family practitioner from 1979-2016, and now works part-time in inner city medical clinics in Columbus, Ohio, and Charleston, South Carolina. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV324_B01F09_012
Subjects: Vietnam War (1961-1975); United States. Army. Airborne Division, 101st; Sculpture; Art
Places: Vietnam
 

Description: A photograph of a sculpture of Simon Kenton. Ohio sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward designed this statue of Simon Kenton, an early Ohio settler who was known for his conflicts with American Indians, in the early 1860s. He had hoped an enlargement of this statue, to be placed in Columbus, Ohio, would be his first public monument. Due to the outbreak of the Civil War, however, the project was not approved. The statue measures 26" high (66.04 cm). Ward (1830-1910) was born in Urbana, Ohio. He moved to New York in 1849 to study under sculptor Henry Kirke Brown. In 1861 he established a studio and began working on pieces with distinctly American themes. The Indian Hunter was his first public work and one of several pieces placed in Central Park in New York. He also created statues of George Washington and James A. Garfield in Washington, D.C. Ward also created the pediment statues at the New York Stock Exchange, focusing on figures signifying American wealth and commerce. Simon Kenton (1755-1836) was born in Virginia and fled to avoid prosecution for a fight in which he believed that he killed his opponent. Using the name Simon Butler, he settled in Boonesboro, Kentucky. He served as a spy during Lord Dunmore's War and spent time in a British prison in Detroit. He joined General Anthony Wayne's offensive against the American Indians in Ohio in 1793 at fought in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. During the War of 1812 he commanded troops at the Battle of the Thames, in which the Americans were victorious over the British. Kenton died in Logan County, Ohio on April 29, 1836. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F04_013_001
Subjects: Sculpture; Ward, John Quincy Adams, 1830-1910; Kenton, Simon, 1755-1836
Places: Urbana (Ohio); Champaign County (Ohio)
 

Description: Taken in 1971 by U.S. Army medic Charles Tweel, this photograph shows a sculpture of a lion or other animal beneath a canopy, located at the Hue monument complex, the ruins of the imperial capital established in 1802. This photograph is part of the Charles Tweel Collection (AV 324) at the Ohio History Connection. Charles Tweel grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and attended The Ohio State University. After graduation in 1968, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a non-combatant, first training as a medic at Fort Sam Huston, followed by nine months of additional training at Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He finished his training as a Specialist 3 and 91C, MOS, and went on to serve in Bamberg, Germany, with combat engineers for one year. In January 1971, Tweel served in Vietnam with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion (Air Mobile), 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, based out of Camp Evans near Phu Bai, north of Hue, until December of that year. Tweel spent most of his service on various firebases as the medic in charge, and occasionally shared firebases with South Vietnamese soldiers. He also visited MedCAP stations (Medical Civic Action Programs) where he treated civilians. Tweel received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement, and was promoted to Specialist 5 in 1971. After discharge from the Army, he went to medical school and was in private practice as a family practitioner from 1979-2016, and now works part-time in inner city medical clinics in Columbus, Ohio, and Charleston, South Carolina. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV324_B01F01_011
Subjects: Vietnam War (1961-1975); United States. Army. Airborne Division, 101st; Art; Sculpture
Places: Hue (Vietnam)
 

Description: This photograph is a black-and-white image of a colorful mural titled "Romance of Steel, Old,” created in 1938 by artist Glenn Moore Shaw (1891-1981). The oil-on-canvas mural, which measures 7 feet high by 16-1/8 fee feet wide, is located in the Warren, Ohio, post office. This painting is paired with a second mural, “Romance of Steel, Modern,” which hangs directly below the first. Together the murals convey both the progression of steel manufacturing technology and the hard physical labor that produced the valuable alloy. Shaw depicts a group of eight steelworkers engaged in various tasks: grasping red-hot metal with long-handled tongs, using shovels to keep the furnace burning at the right temperature, and controlling the furnace door. The mural was funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Painting and Sculpture (the “Section”), one of the department’s three visual arts programs instituted during the Great Depression. Established in 1934, the Section commissioned artists to create paintings and sculpture that would decorate new federal buildings. The commissions were awarded competitively. Unlike other cultural programs of the New Deal, the Section’s primary goal was to procure art for public buildings, not to provide work relief. Glenn Moore Shaw was born in Olmstead Falls, Ohio. After graduating high school he attended the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art). He married fellow art student Elsa Vick in 1917 and joined the faculty of his alma mater in 1922. He was head of the school’s mural department from 1937 to 1957, when he retired. During his career he painted more than 60 murals. He and Mrs. Shaw moved to Arizona in 1968. He died in Sun City in 1981. In 1988 photographer Connie Girard took color and black-and-white images of this mural for an article in "Timeline" magazine (June/July 1989). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04498
Subjects: Mural paintings (visual works); Post office buildings--Ohio; United States. Department of the Treasury. Section of Painting and Sculpture; Great Depression and the New Deal; Warren (Ohio)
Places: Warren (Ohio); Trumbull County (Ohio)
 

Description: Taken in 1971 by U.S. Army medic Charles Tweel, this photograph shows a sculpture of a man wearing elaborate clothing and armor, carrying a sword over his shoulder, possibly a military, political, or religious figure. This photograph is part of the Charles Tweel Collection (AV 324) at the Ohio History Connection. Charles Tweel grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and attended The Ohio State University. After graduation in 1968, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a non-combatant, first training as a medic at Fort Sam Huston, followed by nine months of additional training at Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He finished his training as a Specialist 3 and 91C, MOS, and went on to serve in Bamberg, Germany, with combat engineers for one year. In January 1971, Tweel served in Vietnam with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion (Air Mobile), 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, based out of Camp Evans near Phu Bai, north of Hue, until December of that year. Tweel spent most of his service on various firebases as the medic in charge, and occasionally shared firebases with South Vietnamese soldiers. He also visited MedCAP stations (Medical Civic Action Programs) where he treated civilians. Tweel received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement, and was promoted to Specialist 5 in 1971. After discharge from the Army, he went to medical school and was in private practice as a family practitioner from 1979-2016, and now works part-time in inner city medical clinics in Columbus, Ohio, and Charleston, South Carolina. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV324_B02F12_021
Subjects: Vietnam War (1961-1975); United States. Army. Airborne Division, 101st; Sculpture; Art
Places: Vietnam
 

Description: Original description reads: "Hydrocal Panel Set (3) Clipping off waste mold from Hydrocal Sculpture Labor Pane l Akron Board of Education" View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B12F09_017_001
Subjects: Cement sculpture--Ohio--Akron; Sculptors--Ohio--Akron; Akron (Ohio). Board of Education
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows the Doric columns that surround the Ohio Statehouse. The Ohio State Capitol, located at 1 Capitol Square, is a 2 acre building which stands in a 10-acre park bounded by High, Broad, State, and Third Streets, in downtown Columbus. Also known as the Ohio Statehouse, Columbus residents would often take advantage of the wide green lawns by allowing their cows and horses to graze there during the night. Legislative action ended the use of the building for a stable in 1878, but newspaper reports show that they remained through the 1880's. The beauty of the massive limestone structure depends principally upon simplicity and strength, emphasized by a row of Doric columns at each of its four entrances. The dome is the result of a compromise. The original design called for a dome surrounded by a colonnade that would harmonize with the general architecture, but the plan never was carried out because of bickering by legislators over cost and details of construction. The cornerstone was laid in 1839, and although the building was occupied by some State departments in 1857, it was not completed until 1861, 22 years after it was begun. When Henry Walter of Cincinnati was appointed supervising architect in 1839, numerous plans for the building were considered and the one finally adopted was a composite. Both convict and private labor were used, and limestone was hauled from a quarry northwest of Columbus, purchased by the State to ensure enough material, on a railroad especially constructed for that purpose. Delays in securing State appropriations, a severe cholera epidemic, and labor difficulties retarded construction work, which at one time ceased for six years. Before the building was completed, five architects had served during the administrations of 12 governors. It is considered one of the country’s outstanding examples of the Greek Revival style and at the time, it was the second largest building, behind only the United States Capitol building. The total cost of the capitol approximated $1,650,000. An annex, directly east of the capitol and connected with it by a stone terrace, was completed in 1901 at a cost of $450,000. The capitol proper is 504 feet long and 184 feet wide, with 12 – 15 inches thick foundation walls. The annex, 220 feet long and 100 feet wide, conforms architecturally with the main building. A flight of 12 steps from each of the four entrances to the capitol leads to a central rotunda. Offices of the governor and other State officials flank the four marble-floored foyers. Elaborately carved woods, marbles from many lands, and paintings and sculpture by noted American artists adorn the interior. In the center of the inlaid marble floor of the rotunda are 13 blocks, each representing one of the thirteen original States, surrounded by three circles and a sunburst of 32 points, one for each State at the time the marble was laid. One circle represents the unorganized territory at the time the Union was formed; another, the Louisiana Purchase; and the third, the territory acquired in the war with Mexico. A fourth circle, enclosing the sunburst, symbolizes the Constitution. Battle flags of Ohio – many of them shell-torn and bearing other service scars – are displayed in cabinets. Large historical murals by William Mark Young adorn the rotunda and the walls flanking the four main stairways. The rich decorations ascending the dome culminate in an illuminated reproduction, in art glass, of the Great Seal of Ohio. Tablets at the entrances to the rotunda pay tribute to Andrews’ Raiders of the Civil War; to Major General Benson Hough, Ohio soldier and jurist; to soldiers and sailors of the Civil War; and to 51 women leaders in the feminist movement, including several Ohioans. Other tablets commemorate the sesquicentennial (1937) of the Northwest Territory and the founding of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (1899) in Columbus. Stairways lead from the floor of the rotunda to the Hall of Representatives and the Senate Chamber. At the head of the stairway on the north side stands the Lincoln Memorial, a bust of Lincoln executed by T.D. Jones. Directly to the east is a wall panel showing in relief a group of Union and Confederate officers who participated in the battle of Vicksburg. Outstanding among the capitol’s works of art is a large painting in the east foyer, Battle of Lake Erie, by William H. Powell. A copy of this paining is displayed in the nation’s Capitol. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F13_010
Subjects: Capitol buildings; Memorials--Ohio; Capitol Square District (Columbus, Ohio); Governors--Ohio; Ohio. House of Representatives; Ohio. Senate; Walter, Henry; Sculpture, McKinley, William, 1843-1901
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)