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- Image: Library of Congress
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created to provide jobs for the country’s masses of unemployed. Part of this initiative was the Federal Arts Program (FAP), giving employment to countless artists and craftspeople. Many Governors Island buildings were updated or expanded as part of the WPA program, and Pershing Hall benefited from a FAP commission to Tom Loftin Johnson for murals to adorn its principal hallways.
Johnson’s 90 foot mural in Pershing Hall depicts American military history. A close look at these detailed murals reveals many notable national characters, some with particular connections to Governors Island:
The familiar profile of founding father, George Washington
General Lee’s surrender to General Grant at Appomattox in the American Civil War
This gentleman is General Pershing, Commander of the AEF (American Expeditionary Forces) in WWI and namesake of the building that contains this mural.
A medical officer attends a wounded fellow officer in WWII. The officer, Frank R. McCoy, later became commander of Governors Island
Molly Pitcher is depicted here, representing women who fought in the American War for Independence.
A host of less well- known figures can also be found and a heap of symbolism:
This rakish figure represents the "carpetbaggers"-post Civil War northerners who moved to the south in the reconstruction era.
The plaque for this mural reads “the tragic dissolution of the South is the young woman clinging to a crumbled column”
This rose is noted as “symbolic of the romantic stories of the Mexican War”
Pershing Hall will be open to the public August 7-8 for the African Film Festival. Check out this excellent event and take a look at the fantastic murals while you are there.
Filed under: Art on the Island, Governors Island 101, History Tagged: | architecture, art, governors island, history
Johnson’s masterwork is a large scale mural of the history of war in the U.S. Military Academy cadet dining hall at West Point, New York. The same themes and portrayals found their way into that later work and was such a great source of pride, that he requested in his will that his ashes be interred with the mural. Sadly his family was not aware of his will and interred him in Colorado when he died in 1964.