Douglass Crockwell — Vermont mural

Glens Falls residents got to see it before Vermonters, but visitors to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. got the first look.

On April 9, 1937, The Post-Star reported that Crandall Library would exhibit for a few days a 6.5-foot tall, 15-foot long mural that artist Douglass Crockwell designed and painted to be installed at the White River Junction, Vt., post office.

The mural had just been returned from being exhibited at Washington.

Crockwell, who had lived at Glens Falls since 1932, won a national competition for the commission, paid for through a federal Works Progress Administration program that had been established during the Great Depression.

“Representing Vermont industry, the mural depicts on the left side a quarrying of marble, granite and slate; in the center, farming; and on the right side, maple syrup and lumbering. Rock and soil blend in the oil painting, and the theme is carried out in an unusual manner by silhouette formation patterned against the background,” The Post-Star reported.

“The mural will fit over an arched doorway, with part of the arch running as a broken element into the bottom of it after it is fixed in place.”

Crockwell, at the time, was working on sketches to compete for a commission to design and paint a mural for the Endicott, N.Y. post office.

Crockwell did, in fact, win the Endicott commission, and also a commission to paint a post office mural at Macon, Mississippi, according to the National Museum of American Illustration.

It was not the first time Crockwell’s work would be exhibited at the library.

On Jan. 18, 1935, The Post-Star reported that Crandall Library was hosting an exhibit of Crockwell’s paintings, posters and carvings and painting by Crockwell’s wife.

Crockwell was scheduled to be back at Crandall Library Dec. 15, 1938, to speak and show his work at a meeting of the Glens Falls Teachers Association, The Post-Star reported on Sept. 22.

Click here to read my most recent previous Douglass Crockwell post.