The Barefoot Mailman and Florida's Post Office Murals

Join Keri Watson, Ph.D., for this Florida Humanities Speakers Bureau/Florida Talks presentation. Post office murals are visible and enduring symbols of New Deal ideology that provide lasting evidence of governmental art patronage during the Great Depression. Among the most frequently visited federal buildings, post offices operated as community-gathering spaces during the twentieth century. Not just for picking up mail or sending packages, during the 1930s post offices offered a place to meet neighbors and catch up on news. In Florida, sixteen new post offices were built between 1937 and 1943, and each was decorated with murals or relief sculptures paid for by the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture. These murals often focus on local history, and West Palm Beach’s murals are no exception. The office’s six murals, painted by Stevan Dohanos, feature James Edward “Ed” Hamilton, “Florida’s Barefoot Mail Carrier.”