Carl Nyquist

Post offices that have artwork by the artists Carl Nyquist

Tennessee Post Office Mural Artists

July 30, 2020 By David W. Gates Jr.

A total of twenty-nine artist created murals in thirty Tennessee Post Office buildings during the Great Depression of the 1930s. One of the artist Minna Citron received multiple commissions. The artist and their awarded sites as listed below.

We have found having a list such as this is convenient when performing research at the National Archives Records and Administration. Any researcher will reveal, that finding information is part of the fun, somethings what you are looking for is catalogued by the artist name. Other times the research materials you need may be cataloged by the city or town, and so on.

Having a list to refer to is helpful on your journey of discovering these wonderful treasures in our nations post offices.

Tennessee Post Office Mural Artist

Bolivar – Carl Nyquist
Camden – John H. Fyfe
Chattanooga – Leopold Scholz, sculpture
Chattanooga – Hilton Leech, mural
Clarksville – F. Luis Mora
Clinton – Horace Talmage Day
Columbia – Henry Billings, mural
Columbia – Sidney Waugh, sculpture
Crossville – Marion Greenwood
Dayton – Bertram Hartman
Decherd – Enea Biafora
Dickson – Edwin Boyd Johnson
Dresden – Minetta Good
Gleason – Anne Poor
Greeneville – William Zorach
Jefferson City – Charles Child
Johnson City – Wendell Jones
La Follette – Dahlov Ipcar
Lenoir City – David Stone Martin
Lewisburg – John H.R. Pickett
Lexington – Grace Greenwood (Ames)
Livingston – Margaret Covey Chisholm
Manchester – Minna Citron*
McKenzie – Karl Oberteuffer
Mount Pleasant – Eugene Higgins
Nashville – Belle Kinney
Newport – Minna Citron*
Ripley – Marguerite Zorach
Rockwood – Christian Henrich
Sweetwater – Thelma Martin

Sources

David W. Gates Jr. on site visits to each location.
Tennessee Post Office Murals by David W. Gates Jr.
Indiana Post Office Mural Guidebook by David W. Gates Jr.
National Archives Records and Administration, College Park Maryland
Who was who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 years of artist in America, Peter H Falk; Audrey M Lewis, Georgia Kuchen, Veronika Roessler, Madison, CT, Mount View Press. 1999.
Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal: [Hardcover] Marlene Park, Gerald E. Markowitz

Bolivar Tennessee Post Office

July 27, 2013 By David W. Gates Jr.

ADDRESS: 118 E. Market St., Bolivar, Tennessee, 38008
ARTIST: Carl Nyquist
TITLE: Picking Cotton
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas (mural)
STATUS: The Bolivar post offices is still an active, operating facility, and the mural can be vise by interested members of the public. It resides in the lobby on the wall above the postmaster’s door.
YEAR: 1941

So let me tell you a story. Would you like to know how dedicated and particular I am when it comes to photographing these old buildings? Well, here let me explain.

We arrived in Nashville early Tuesday morning. I completely forgot to charge my camera batteries the night before I left. It was a beautiful sunny day and I wanted to take advantage of the nice sunny weather. Problem is if I go back to the hotel and charge the batteries I’ll lose several hours of time. Since I only had 3 plus days I really wanted to maximize my time here. So what did I do? I drove the few hours to Bolivar anyway. When I got there I was standing waiting for the right moment, when no one was in front of the building. When no cars were parked all that stuff I’ve been talking about. And what happens, next you ask.

Of course just as the right moment appears I go to turn on my camera to get that un-obstructed shot of the building and what happens? yeah you guessed it, the battery in my camera died. After all that waiting and after standing in the road being stared at my the locals. After all the diligent maneuvering around cars and pedestrian, my battery dies.

But wait, I’m prepared you say to yourself. Yes, I was prepared, my backup was to use my phone camera. Not really my preferred method as I really like higher quality photos but it would have to do for today. So that it, that’s what I ended up doing. I pulled out my the handy phone camera and shot my pictures with that. The story doesn’t end there, I wanted higher resolution photos of this great building and mural that I returned to the Bolivar the following day with charged batteries so that I could get some higher resolution photos with my real/better camera. And that my folks is what you can expect from a Post Office Freak.

Thanks,

David W. Gates Jr.