![Jesse Fell, the founder of the Town of Normal [center] is depicted in the 1938 depression era mural in the Normal Post Office.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0f32c56/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4010x1456+0+0/resize/840x304!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8b%2F1d%2F096c7ca14caa87b684720c912060%2Fpels-mural-11-6-25-a.jpg)
U.S. society has largely moved away from the idea that public structures should symbolize elements of civilization and aspiration. Resources and economy of spending often carry more weight now in shaping design.
During the Great Depression though, the federal government tried to stimulate the economy by funding a variety of buildings and programs. Among them was the post office in the Town of Normal put up through the Works Progress Administration [WPA]. Inside that post office is another salute to the community, to human achievement, and to the importance of beauty in public spaces. It's an oil on canvas artwork.
The 1938 mural is by Albert Pels, a New York artist who grew up in Ohio and trained in Cincinnati. The title is “Development of the State Normal School.”
“It celebrates three beautiful pillars of the American experiment: ideals in a democratic society expressed in the imagery, the importance of public education in a republic, and the third grand theme is embracing the teaching profession, Angel's work, an indivisible part of a democratic society,” said Bill Kemp, librarian at the McLean County Museum of History.
Pels was 28 when he completed the mural in Normal. Despite the WPA project that created the post office in 1936, the WPA did not pay for the mural. The U.S. Treasury Department had an active art program called the Department Section of Painting and Sculpture.
“Unlike other New Deal alphabet agency programs, the section was not designed to target relief. Artists were not selected based on need or hardship. Rather, artists for the Section were selected through regional and national competitions,” said Kemp.
There are at least 70 post offices in the state of Illinois with Treasury artwork from this period, said Kemp. Many are representative of the "American Scene" style of art.
“You're going to shy away from any hint of classical mythology and symbolism in favor of recognizable figures in recognizable dress doing recognizable things,” said Kemp.
The government paid Pels $630. Adjusted for inflation, today’s equivalent is around $14,500. The contract required the mural to be 11’x4’, though Kemp said measurements have it at about 11’ x 3’10.” Its goal was to trace the emergence of Normal and the public university not only to the local community but to the fabric of the nation.
It begins on the left with a romanticized scene of pioneer settlement in the early 1800s with a Conestoga. According to Kemp those covered wagons weren't that common in this part of the state. It ends on the right with a 1930s scene of two teachers, recent graduates of ISNU, about to embark on teaching careers — one heading to a rural corn belt countryside school, and the other to an urban landscape. In between, there are groups of students being taught what appears to be math. Jesse Fell, one of the founders of the Town of Normal and a key player in getting the university located in McLean County, is depicted. The Old Main building at ISU put up in 1961 has prominence.
“And one of the early figures is an adult Black man, so you get a little bit of a sense of diversity as well,” said Kemp.
The Treasury Department encouraged artists to visit communities where the murals would be installed. Pels made several attempts but may never have visited.
“We do know he corresponded with C.A. Berner, who was the female editor of the weekly Normalite newspaper. Pels also corresponded with Rachel Fell Treakle, one of Jesse Fell’s children, to gain historical background on the community,” said Kemp.
Kemp said he knows of one other Albert Pels Treasury Department Depression-era mural. It’s in Wilmington, Delaware. He completed it the same year as the project in Normal.
“It's now in a neighborhood post office in Wilmington, and it's called 'The Landing of Swedes at the rocks in Wilmington.' So, it's about Swedish immigration,” said Kemp.
Later in life Pels established a school of art in New York City. It was a school for non-artists.
“He had a lot of celebrities at his art school. Duke Ellington was one of his students. Lena Horne and the great composer Richard Rogers and the lyricist Oscar Hammerstein were also students of Albert Pels,” said Kemp.
McHistory is a co-production of WGLT and the McLean County Museum of History.
