Stop and check out the mural inside the Bluffton post office.

A set of U.S. postal service stamps this spring reminded several area historians, artists and stamp collectors of Bluffton's historic post office mural.

Bluffton's mural depicts Joseph Deford and his friends building a cabin in Bluffton (Shannon). Sante Graziani painted the Bluffton mural in 1941, which is oil on canvas.

Click here for photos of Sante Graziani art
Click here for information about Sante Graziani

Postal service mural stamp series
On April 10 the postal service issued a 10-stamp series featuring five post office murals created in the 1930s and 1940s.

Although the Bluffton post office mural is not among those featured, it was among those painted in post offices created primarily during the Great Depression that ensued following the 1929 stock market crash.

Neighboring Ada also has a post office mural.  It is titled “Country Dance,” an oil-on-canvas painting by Albert Kotin, completed in 1940 and installed in the lobby of the post office constructed two years earlier. The mural extends nearly 12 feet across, similar in size to Bluffton's mural.

CLICK HERE for a list of all postal mural in Ohio post offices.
Click here for additional information on Ada's post office mural.

In line with the many work programs developed by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt beginning in 1933, artists were commissioned by the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts to create paintings and sculptures intended to beautify public buildings.

Federal post offices, many of them built during the same period, received several of these artworks. Artists around the country sought to provide scenes relating to the community where the artwork would be displayed.

An effort was made to illustrate hopeful scenes of work and community bonding during what was an extended period of economic hardship.

Over the years, some of this artwork has been lost, painted over or destroyed, but more than 1,000 works remain on display in post offices all over the country.

Online resources, including wpamurals.com, Wikipedia and others, provide guidance for locating existing murals.

The murals featured on the postal series includes the following murals:
• Kiowas Moving Camp (1936) Anadarko, Oklahoma
• Mountains and Yucca (1937) Deming New Mexico
• Antelope (1939) Florence, Colorado
• Sugarloaf Mountain (1940) Rockville, Maryland
• Air Mail (1941) Piggott, Arkansas