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Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
Study for Hyde Park Post Office Mural
Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

Study for Hyde Park Post Office Mural

Object numberMO 1968.15.69
Name Sketch
Artist (American painter and printmaker, 1904-1981)
Date1940-1941
Mediumwatercolor on paper
Dimensionsframe H 14 1/2 in x W 17 1/4 in x D 5/8 in (36.8 cm x 43.8 cm x 1.6 cm )
DescriptionA watercolor study for a mural panel for the post office in Hyde Park, New York. It depicts a private drive in the foreground and the large Bellefield house in the center background, partially obscured by trees. The house is located just north of the Franklin D. Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park. There is no visible signature on the painting. Stamped in the lower right of the painting [beneath the mat]: HP 40-41.

The painting is matted, glazed, and framed in a 3/4" dark wood frame with gilt inner trim. A label on the reverse of the frame indicates it was framed by Hyde Park Paint and Glass Co. in Hyde Park, New York.

Label TextOne of the important artistic initiatives of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal were the WPA and Treasury Department programs to create large murals in public buildings.

These initiatives led to the creation of thousands of murals by local artists that still grace courthouses, post offices, city halls, schools, and other public structures in towns and cities from Maine to California. Many of these murals celebrated the history, culture, and people of their communities.

FDR took a strong interest in the murals created for public buildings in his native Dutchess County— especially the Hyde Park Post Office. He became deeply involved in the work of Olin Dows, the local artist who was commissioned to create those murals.

Dows built a scale model of the Post Office’s lobby so Roosevelt could see precisely how the murals would appear in the space. The artist became a friend of FDR’s and later gave the Roosevelt Library hundreds of sketches, drawings, and watercolor studies he produced - including this watercolor study - while creating the Hyde Park murals.

You can see Dows’s murals today if you visit the lobby of the Hyde Park Post Office. It is located on the Albany Post Road, two miles north of the Roosevelt Library.
Additional Details
Credit LineGift of Olin Dows
National Archives Catalog CollectionFranklin D. Roosevelt Library Museum Collection (National Archives Identifier 735948)
National Archives Catalog SeriesHudson River Valley Materials (National Archives Identifier 778818)
Use Restriction StatusUnrestrictedCopyrightReproduction or other use of these holdings or images thereof is unrestricted.
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