Made in Montana: Montana's post office murals

Even when they had chosen a winner, the decision did not satisfy everyone. In a letter to Rowan, postmaster J. P. Sternhagen admitted that he preferred the group's second choice, Forrest Hill's submission. He added that he was writing only as an active committee member and that his position as postmaster should not have any bearing on the Section's decision. Not surprisingly, Washington concurred with Sternhagen. Always sensitive to postmasters' preferences, Rowan made sure they were involved with the proceedings and pleased with the outcome. Thus, the postmaster had a great deal of influence over the finished mural.24

Upon learning that he had been awarded the generous $1,250 commission, Montana native Forrest Hill promptly bought a high-quality Belgian canvas for "an arm and a leg" to begin work on the 72'' x 168'' mural. Although he had never been to Glasgow, he was familiar with both its location and the competition guidelines. In an effort to please everyone, he included nearly all the suggested elements in Early Settlers and Residents and Modern Industries. The mural showed an outline of Montana with settlers, fur traders, an Indian, and surveyors arrayed around the outside and figures representing agriculture, trucking, the railroads, and industry filling the interior. Section officers observed that the painting's quality was undistinguished but felt the subject would be significant for post office patrons.25

Hill, like Burkhard and Gassner, experienced civic censorship over one of the mural's details. In the lower right-hand comer, he painted a gambler seated at a small table with a whiskey bottle and glass, but the suggestion that these vices were common m the life of Montanans led the selection committee to chasten that "too much prominence was given to the gambler." Hill recalled that the local branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union threatened that he would not be paid if he did not change his painting. Hill accordingly altered the painting, moving a woman dressed in white and carrying a Bible to the prominent position the gambler had once occupied. The gambler stepped into the woman's position and lost his identity; he is now just an anonymous man in the design.26

Section officials used the submissions for the Glasgow mural as the basis for appointing artists to create artwork for three other Montana post offices. However, in selecting an artist to paint the Sidney mural, the designs were not the sole basis for Section officials' decision. Letters from the wife and mother of one of the contestants, J. K. Ralston, stressed Ralston's knowledge of the area, his reputation as the next Charlie Russell, and his friendship with state officials. Apparently convinced, Rowan wrote to Ralston in October 1941 to inform him that he was "invited . . . to undertake the mural decoration of Sidney, Montana post office." Though this commission was to have been Mordi Gassner's, he again lost due to grass-roots activism. Twice defeated, Gassner turned his attention elsewhere.27