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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Monday, June 22, 2009 8:20 PM CDT
Thompson releases another in series about post office art

By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com

WESTFIELD — A portrait of John Deere peers out from a post office window in the cover photo of the latest book by Mary Emma Thompson.

Deere, founder and namesake of the Moline-based farm machinery company, is pictured on the cover of a book, “Let’s Look for Industry in Illinois Post Offices,” that highlights industry-related artwork.

Thompson writes in the introduction: “The art was selected and paid for by the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, one of four federal art projects that put artists to work during the Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s.”

The 45-page book includes 17 photographs of murals and sculpture reliefs at post offices throughout much of Illinois, including the Decatur Post Office’s mural depicting Deere. Each photograph is accompanied by a short narrative about the work of art and the history, or symbolism, it depicts.

For example, the narrative for a Decatur Post Office mural depicting famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright notes that Wright designed three houses in Decatur as well as the Dana-Thomas House in Springfield.

Thompson said she is particularly fond of the “Loading the Packet” mural at the Chester Post Office that depicts a Mississippi riverboat being loaded with bags of flour milled in the Chester area. She also likes the “Chicago, The Epoch of a Great City” mural at the Lakeview Station in Chicago.

Images of cattle packing and other industry bookend scenes of the changing Chicago skyline, including when it was ablaze during the great 1871 fire.

“Lakeview is really a history of Chicago, but it has a lot about industry in Chicago,” Thompson said.

Thompson has been studying postal art since 1992. She took up this educational pursuit after retiring from a career as an elementary school teacher and administrator for the Westfield and Casey-Westfield school districts.

“Let’s Look for Industry in Illinois Post Offices” is the latest edition in a series by Thompson that has also highlighted Illinois post office artwork about Abraham Lincoln, mail delivery and farming. Copies of her new book can be purchased at the Eastern Illinois University Tarble Arts Center or by calling her at 967-5362.

Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 238-6861.

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