Michigan Post Office Murals Project

Alma: The Mural

After Joe Cox installed Harvest in the Alma post office on March 30, 1940, the town’s postmaster, Joseph Winslow, wrote to the Section of Fine Arts in Washington, DC, to confirm the painting’s arrival. His April 3rd letter was brief but he assured the Section that the mural “fits well, and the work appears to have been well done.” Later, Winslow also sent a newspaper clipping that praised the mural’s beauty. The oil-on-canvas mural, thirteen and a half feet wide and five feet and nine inches high, was carefully installed over the postmaster’s door, filling the space between the ceiling and door frame. The rural wheat harvest scene is rendered in a predominantly cool color palette with the cloudy sky matching the workers’ denim clothing. Though the wheat also has a silvery quality, with the rust-colored barn, its warmer colors tie into the post office lobby’s wood paneling.

The newspaper clipping in the Alma file can act as a guide to the mural, and it makes it clear that, even for New Deal post office visitors, this was a historical scene.

“Depicting a harvest scene of the pioneer days when grain was cut and bundled by hand, a large mural adorning the north wall of the Alma postoffice lobby has attracted a great deal of attention the last few days. The colorful work of art pictures some of the harvesters pausing to refresh themselves with water from a long handled dipper. An old fashioned buckboard or light, one-horse wagon is being loaded with sheaves against a background of farm buildings and pastoral beauty.”

Because the Section offices initially misplaced Winslow’s letter, he wrote again on April 12th, this time he clarified: “This mural depicts a harvesting scene of some 50 years ago and having two sets of farm buildings, although some modern equipment is evident. It is very well done, well placed, and adds considerable attraction and beauty to the lobby…We receive many comments on the picture, and, except for the inconsistencies as noted above, they are very complimentary.” Winslow’s letter betrays a sense of confusion around the mural’s chronological setting. We know from Cox’s original sketches that he initially planned to represent contemporary Alma in his mural, so it is possible that this goal influenced Winslow’s understanding of the final painting though, as the newspaper clipping states, the farm equipment is “old fashioned.” (See Process) Cox was not alone in painting a historic wheat harvest scene, in fact, it was one of the most common themes in the Section. Few artists were able to depict consciously modern agricultural work, Missouri artist Joe Jones was an exception. Instead, Cox, like many others, portrayed a vaguely historical scene of male workers (and a child) in varied stages of rest and labor. Despite the concessions that Cox made on the mural’s subject matter, the final product is a dynamic painting that conveys a strong sense of movement—the four main figures are engaged in activity, while the wheat rustles in the wind and the clouds blow across the wide sky. Notably, after painting in a more realistic style for his New Deal murals, Cox moved toward abstraction later in his career. (See Artist)