The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is holding a public forum on Monday, October 30, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Ronald Reagan Building/ International Trade Center at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, DC. According to the GSA press release:

The Forum is being conducted to consider concerns that have been raised about six murals in the Ariel Rios Federal Building, located adjacent to the Reagan Building. The objections to the murals focus on their depiction of Native Americans in scenes related to the delivery of the U.S. Mail on the American Frontier. These murals were painted for the Ariel Rios Building at the time of its construction in 1934 to house the headquarters of the U.S. Postal Service. It now serves as part of the headquarters complex for the Environmental Protection Agency.

GSA Press Release

Murals, morals, and the “Dangers of the Mails”

The McClatchy newspapers ran a very interesting story the other day about the controversy surrounding a number of murals in a former Washington DC post office that now houses the Environmental Protection Agency. The story cites as the most controversial item a painting entitled “Dangers of the Mail”, painted in 1937 by Frank Mechau, which “depicts Indians brutally scalping and murdering white settlers. All the women are naked, including one who’s on all fours as a male Indian stands behind her, seizing her hair.” Like, I said, a very interesting story.

(The story repeatedly refers to “political correctness”, a cliche I thought had gone out of fashion some time ago. It always puzzled me that “political correctness” was such a one sided term. I never heard it used to refer to, for example, former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s neurotic draping of nude statues in the Justice Department. Or Dick Cheney’s doctrine that anyone who disagrees with him is aiding al Qaeda. I guess political correctness has its own politically correct usage rules.)

For more on the murals, check out the GSA web site.

Murals in federal building spark debate over censorship
McClatchy Newspapers

It just has to go to this one: “Invention of a Paper Bag in Canajoharie” painted in 1942, from jimmywayne22’s Flickr photostream.

Canajoharie, New York mural on Flickr

You can find some fascinating stuff on Flickr- this picture is from a series of pictures of murals in Connecticut post offices. The murals are interesting, but the carving shown above really caught my eye- it’s entitled ‘The Picnickers’, and is in the Oakville CT post office. Click on the picture for more.