Mural and Maker

Post Office Plaque

"ACTIVITIES OF THE NARRAGANSETT PLANTERS" BY ERNEST H. BAKER**

United States Post Office Wakefield Rhode Island:

The mural (oil on canvas) in this post office is by Ernest Hamlin Baker. It was carried out under the program of the Section of Fine Arts, Federal Works Agency, Public Buildings Administration, which decorates federal buildings with murals and sculpture. Mr. Baker received this commission as a result of competent designs submitted in a Section of Fine Arts open anonymous competition.

Description of Mural:

During the early days of South County, RI the Narragansett Planters developed several renumerative activities, such as the breeding for export of the Narragansett pacer, of draft horses and highly prized dairy cows. They also raised sheep, grew and ground Indian corn, and had a healthy export trade in molasses, rum and wool. These sources of the Planters wealth are all suggested in the mural. At the upper left is visible Pettaquamscutt rock where the purchase of the surrounding country from the Narragansett Indians was concluded. The stormy sea suggests the risks to shipping of the violent storms characteristic of the Atlantic coast.

Note on Artist:

Mr. Baker was born at Essex, N.Y. in 1889. He graduated from Colgate University in 1912. From 1912-1914 he worked as a political cartoonist in Poughkeepsie. Later he studied under Arthur Covey. Mr. Baker won his first success in commercial art. He also did a series of "profile" caricatures for The New Yorker and a series of covers, portraits and maps for Fortune.

Section of Fine Arts:

The aim of the Section of Fine Arts is to secure murals and sculpture of distinguished quality appropriate to the embellishment of Federal buildings. Approximately 1% of the total of limit of cost of the building is reserved for this decoration. The Section holds open anonymous competitions, national, regional, state or local, to which all citizen artists of the United States are eligible. A different jury of painters or sculptors, unattached to the Section, judges each competition. The jury members are selected on the basis of experience and knowledge. They are called upon to judge the intrinsic quality of the painting or sculpture and its relationship to its setting.

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**NOTE: This is the text provided by the Section of Fine Arts, as it appeared on the wall adjacent to the mural at the Wakefield post office. For a discussion of the title of the mural, please see "Dual and Dueling Histories."