The United States government got into the art business when it instituted a series of programs to keep artists working during the Depression years. Tennessee received its fair share, and most of the original thirty are still in existence. A few have been moved to different locations, but the author notes that most of the murals “are still on that same wall in the same small post office in that same small town where they were placed so long ago.” Unfortunately, many people are not aware of these murals—even in the areas where they are located. Written for the purpose of enhancing the knowledge of Tennesseans about the murals found in their post offices, this book will be of interest to artists and historians as well. Hull has included numerous photographs along with his descriptions of each mural and its composition, the mural’s relation to history, and a biographical sketch of each artist.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Howard Hull enlisted in the United States Air Force and served eight years as a weatherman in Europe and the United States, and from 1965 until his retirement in 1999, he was a professor of art education at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely fascinating!,
This review is from: Tennessee Post Office Murals (Paperback)
Although I was born in the state of Louisiana, I haved lived in East Tennessee for most of my adult life. I found this book to be absolutely fascinating! And, after doing further research, I have learned that these murals exist in post offices all over the United States, but that sadly, only the murals in two states have been written about in such detail (Tennessee and Illinois.) I can only hope that these incredible works of art will last for many decades to come, and that the residents of these small towns will notice and appreciate them. They are truly treasures of history.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful History in Murals and Pictures.,
By Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tennessee Post Office Murals (Paperback)
Stamp collectors are a breed apart. Many stamps are a work of art. At Christmas particularly, we've enjoyed mailing our cards with a Santa motif or religious -- usually Mary in the many classic renderings.
Mr. Hull traveled the state of Tennessee (quite a distance across our Volunteer state) to document murals at the various post offices. From the fresco painting on the wall of the old p.o. in Dickson (the ceiling of Rome's Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is also of the fresco technique) to the secret murals we see life in art. As the paint sinks into a plaster wall, it becomes part of the wall. There is such a mural at the University of Tennessee but it is kept hid. Dickson's mural of eight people of the soil was concocted by a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, a native Tennessean, Edwin Boyd Johnson of Watertown. He also painted p. o. murals in Melrose Park and Tuscola, Illinois. Of the eight country people are two blacks, supposedly paid field hands. That "secret mural" at UT also include a few blacks. They were painted in the 1930s. The "Picking Cotton" mural at Bolivar post office proves that we did indeed grow cotton in this state. I had to goto Alabama to see my first real cotton growing on the stalk. It was magical for a twnety-year-old city girl. The most expensive mural which took two years to complete at a cost of $1,650,000 was of our TVA dams in 1938. It was shown in a special exhibit at the Art Students League in New York when Eleanor Roosevelt was an honored guest. For many yars, it hung in the Newport, Tennessee, post office. Home of the Stokely Van Camp corporation in Cocke County, the town was developed in 1867, two years after the Civil War, and became county seat in 1884. Sam Houston and both President Andys (Jackson and Johnson) visited this historic mural. It was moved to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. This book includes 28 of the 95 counties. Murals are made for a particular wall, protraying the culture and people of the area in which they are found. There are two such painting in the Small Assembly Room of the modernistic CityCounty Bldg. on Main Street in Knoxville. The author was professor of art education (with gold teeth) at UT, after graduating from Vanderbilt in Nashville. He has a permanent collection at Fisk University where Zach taught. I wish he'd included the "secret panel" at UT and told the significance. It is controversial to say the least.
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