When the New Deal took over Washington, the great limestone & marble building which now houses the Post Office Department was nearing completion. Its architects wanted its walls decorated with the usual classical allegory. A special adviser to the State and Treasury Departments named Edward Bruce objected. A capable Manhattan lawyer who retired in 1922 to become a capable artist, he stormed: "I don't want any pictures of ladies in cheesecloth clutching letters and postcards to go into that building!"
Before long Edward Bruce's good friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had him heading a newly created Section of Fine Arts, charged with...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
