And WNY has its share of New Deal murals

By Robert J. McLennan
(Image above: “The Meaning of Social Security” by Ben Shahn, from the Cohen Federal Building. From https://www.loc.gov)

I’m one of the last people you’d expect to write an article about art, at least the visual kind of art.  I am very impressed by some artwork, paintings and sculptures but I have little knowledge about it and not much understanding of the fine points.  I just know that looking at particular works of art gives me a feeling that doesn’t happen with all of it. 

Whether it’s painting or drawing or photography or whatever, sometimes I’ll think, what could someone possibly see in that?  But then I’ll see something not that dissimilar, and I’ll consider it gorgeous.  Abstract, expressionist, minimalist, pop art, surrealist, impressionist, modern, realism … I like some of it but not all, and I don’t have a firm grasp on why or why not.

So I won’t be applying to serve as The Buffalo Hive’s art critic anytime soon, but there’s one area of art that I feel very passionate about, and that’s the New Deal paintings and murals that were installed in federal buildings and post offices nationwide during the Great Depression in the 1930s.   This ties into my intense interest in politics and history, and my career with the US Postal Service and the Letter Carriers union. 

I was especially alarmed at a New York Times article by Holland Cotter on February 7, 2026, in the Arts section: “It’s Been Called the ‘Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.’ Don’t Destroy It.”  It’s subtitled, “the rare murals in the Cohen Federal Building celebrate vital American values of dignity and community. Now they could meet the same fate as the White House’s East Wing.”  

“Reconstruction and the Wellbeing of the Family,” “The Meaning of Social Security,” “Wealth of the Nation,” “Security of the People” are the names of some of the murals and they are glorious, brilliant renditions of Americans working together, and caring for each other, and tributes to the hard work of the common people who built this country.

Originally, in 1940, the building was intended to be the headquarters of the Social Security Administration, but World War II ended up providing other uses for the building.  Now the building has been made available for sale, since the Voice of America moved out after getting its funding cut, and it’s thereby vulnerable to destruction.  Many of the paintings that are not free-standing could be destroyed if they try to move them.

The Trump administration has made a significant effort to re-write our country’s history by the removal of historical plaques and memorials that do not fit their vision of what America should be.  We can’t lose the great New Deal public art in the Cohen Federal Building.  Public art is important to the story a people tells itself.  Trump understands this as he tries to put his name on everything he can, including the Kennedy Center, the arch he wants to build, plus placing his name and face on our money and the East Wing fiasco.

To an old lefty like me, despite the economic depression, blatant racism and anti-semitism, great wealth inequality, labor battles, the rise of fascism and the Ku Klux Klan and all the rest, FDR and the New Deal were the glory days of progressive politics.  Just imagine, there was a time the government paid artists, musicians and writers to develop their art and to celebrate our country’s history, emphasizing a sense of our shared national identity. 

In that art, workers were celebrated for the strength and dignity of the common man and woman.  In many cases, it was through New Deal art that people were able to actually view an original painting, witness live theater or take music or art lessons.  And artists of all kinds, musicians, writers, actors and stagehands, photographers and graphic artists, were able to get paid during a time of massive unemployment.

“At a time when many Americans felt they had little in common, the Works Progress Administration assured them of a vital, shared cultural identity through theater, art and music,” said Lauren Sklaroff, a history professor at the University of South Carolina, in an NPR story in 2020.

“Many Americans had not ever seen a live play, listened to a symphony that was live, had never visited an art museum.  So, the idea behind the federal arts project was to bring art to the masses so that America would have a common lexicon to draw from, in terms what culture meant.”

One of my favorite books in the past few years is The Trackers, a novel by Charles Frazier, who is best known for the Civil War-era novel Cold Mountain.  The book’s description: “Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, WPA painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.” 

The plot builds and expands from there but the artist working on his mural in the Post Office is a fascinating centerpiece of the book.

Of course, right wing politicians at the time complained about the money being spent on the project and by the time World War II came along the program faded away but much of what was created has survived through the efforts of museums, libraries and archives, including the National Archives and Records Administration.  The murals still decorate city halls, post offices and public schools, and the hundreds of the community arts centers it established are still in existence across the country.

I love these murals.  I think they are majestic and they make me feel something when I look at them.  Despite all the divisions among Americans, now as much as ever, and my recognition that much of American history has always been whitewashed, I feel patriotic about the scope of our shared history when I study the murals.  Of course, this displayed history is not the full story and some are better artistically than others, and some have a more moving theme than others. But overall, many of them are magnificent illustrations of America painted at a time of great distress in our culture.

Many post offices in Western New York have the New Deal murals in their lobbies, usually surrounding or above the door to the postmaster’s office:  Attica, Akron, Angola, Depew, Fredonia, Lancaster, Middleport, Orchard Park and Springville.  The site to find them at is: https://www.wnyhistory.org/portfolios/more/DEPRESSION_ERA_PUBLIC_ART/depression_era_art.html, put together by local historian Susan J. Eck, who died earlier this year after putting together some amazing collections. If you’re interested, make a point of stopping into these Post Offices sometime to check out these fantastic works of art.

RELATED MEDIA: For far more detailed information on these murals and other Western New York history and artifacts, go to https://www.wnyhistory.org.

From the above New York Times article, “So what better time, strategically speaking, for our art institutions to unite in promoting the survival of another, different example of public art — an art for the people that celebrates the dignity of labor, the heroism of sharing, and the morality of kindness as the Cohen building murals do? Surely Americans of every stripe still find such values deeply relatable.  And if you want to put this to the test, head to Washington (now). And see for yourself what could be lost.”

In the meantime, even though there are a mountain of things to worry about and a long list of problems to fix after the current nightmare is over, it wouldn’t hurt to let your congressman and senators know you care about this public art potentially being lost, so future generations won’t have to ask, “What New Deal murals?”

Robert J. McLennan is vice president of The Buffalo Hive Board of Directors.