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Blog

ISLAND ARCHIVES: A Bi-Week­ly Look at Gov­er­nors Islands Pic­turesque Past

Jul 29, 2010 1:52 pm

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: [cap­tion id=“attachment_3633” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“The famil­iar pro­file of found­ing father, George Wash­ing­ton”][/​caption] [cap­tion id=“attachment_3634” align=“aligncenter” width=“225” caption=“General Lee’s sur­ren­der to Gen­er­al Grant at Appo­mat­tox in the Amer­i­can Civ­il War”][/​caption] [cap­tion id=“attachment_3635” align=“aligncenter” width=“213” caption=“This gen­tle­man is Gen­er­al Per­sh­ing, Com­man­der of the AEF (Amer­i­can Expe­di­tionary Forces) in WWI and name­sake of the build­ing that con­tains this mur­al.”][/​caption]

[cap­tion id=“attachment_3640” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“A med­ical offi­cer attends a wound­ed fel­low offi­cer in WWII. The offi­cer, Frank R. McCoy, lat­er became com­man­der of Gov­er­nors Island”][/​caption] [cap­tion id=“attachment_3636” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“Molly Pitch­er is depict­ed here, rep­re­sent­ing women who fought in the Amer­i­can War for Inde­pen­dence.”][/​caption] A host of less well– known fig­ures can also be found and a heap of symbolism: 

[cap­tion id=“attachment_3637” align=“aligncenter” width=“170” caption=“This rak­ish fig­ure rep­re­sents the ​“carpetbaggers”-post Civ­il War north­ern­ers who moved to the south in the recon­struc­tion era.”][/​caption]

[cap­tion id=“attachment_3642” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“The plaque for this mur­al reads ​“the trag­ic dis­so­lu­tion of the South is the young woman cling­ing to a crum­bled col­umn””][/​caption] [cap­tion id=“attachment_3639” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“This rose is not­ed as ​“sym­bol­ic of the roman­tic sto­ries of the Mex­i­can War””][/​caption] 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.
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