Made in Montana: Montana's post office murals

10. Edward Rowan to Olga Ross Hannon, July 9, 1937, PBS Montana, NA; Rowan to Lochrie, September 25, 1937.

11. Harry Andrus to Edward Rowan, May 16, 1938, PBS Montana, NA; Elizabeth Lochrie to Edward Rowan, February 25, 1939, ibid.

12. Woman's Club of Deer Lodge to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Honorable Jerry O'Comiell, October 30, 1937, PBS Montana, NA; Rotary Club President to United States Secretary of the Treasury, October 22, 1937, ibid.; Don Valiton to Edward Rowan, November 1, 1937, ibid.; Representative Jerry O'Connell to Edward Bruce, October 30, 1937, ibid.

13. Edward Rowan to Representative Jerry O'Connell, November 10, 1937, PBS Montana, NA; Edward Rowan to Don Valiton, November 18, 1937,ibid.; Edward Rowan to H. W. Howell, January 6, 1938, ibid.; "Competition for the Mural Decoration in the Deer Lodge, Montana, Post Office," ibid.; George Yphantis to Edward Rowan, October 26, 1938, ibid. Committee members included postmaster Robert Midtlyng, Theodore Jacobs from Missoula, Branson Stevenson from Great Falls, and Robert Barnett from Helena. Olga Ross Harmon volunteered to chair the jury, but Rowan had already named Yphantis. Edward Rowan to Olga Ross Hannon, January 6, 1938, ibid.; George Yphantis to Edward Rowan,January 15, 1938, ibid.

14. Verona Burkhard to Edward Rowan, March 31, 1939, PBS Montana, NA; Verona Burkhard, telephone interview by author, August 1988.

15. Edward Rowan to Verona Burkhard, March 13, 1939, PBS Montana, NA; Verona Burkhard to Edward Rowan, March 31, June 6, 1939, ibid.

16. Burkhard to Rowan, March 31, 1939: Burkhard interview. Emphasizing the importance of the matter, a local headline trumpeted: "'That's Mount Powell' was visitors' exclamation when seeing the mural." Undated newspaper clipping, Deer Lodge file, box 60, RG 121, NA.

17. Maurice Sterne, Henry Varnum Poor, Edgar Miller, and Olin Dows judged the 1,477 designs. McKinzie, New Deal for Artists, 56.

18. New York Times, October 26, 1939.

19. "Speaking of Pictures," Life Magazine, December 4, 1939, 12-15, quote on p. 13.

20. A. J. Breitenstein to Edward Rowan, December 14, 1939, PBS Montana, NA; Senator James E. Murray to Edward Rowan, January 16, 1940, ibid.

21. Mordi Gassner to Edward Rowan, September 25, 1940, PBS Montana, NA.

22. Edward Rowan to Maria Ealand,January 5, 1940, PBS Montana, NA; Edward Rowan to Mordi Gassner, October 2, 1940, ibid.

23. Elizabeth Lochrie to Edward Rowan, September 10, 1940, PBS Montana, NA; Josef Sklower to Edward Rowan, September 5, August 11, 1941, ibid. Committee members included Mr. and Mrs. Josef Sklower, Sam Gilluly, Paul Freidl, Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Friedland, Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Sternhagen, Nora Mumford, Ruth Bowling, Mrs. George Bonndeson, Agnes Rowell, art instructor James Long, and artists William Standing and Frank Lafaurnaise. The competition was open to all artists in Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

24. J. P. Sternhagen to Edward Rowan, August 14, 1941, PBS Montana, NA.

25. Forrest Hill, interview by author, Laurel, Mont., November 1987, notes in possession of the author; "Competition for the Mural Decoration of the Glasgow, Montana Post Office," History file, Glasgow post office, Glasgow, Montana; Marlene Park and Gerald Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal (Philadelphia, 1984), 217; Edward Rowan to Josef Sklower, August 26, 1941, PBS Montana, NA. Hill paid two hundred dollars for the canvas and forty dollars for the shipping. He had planned to use a cheaper cotton canvas, but Rowan told him that it was unlikely to be sturdy enough for public display of a mural. Hill interview.