MINNESOTA ARTIST PROJECTS THROUGH THE DEPRESSION YEARS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT:

Federal relief projects initiated by the New Deal provided opportunities for artists during the 1930s and 1940s. Most of the programs operated on a local or regional basis, and this was the case in Minnesota. The programs financed works of arts for public use and aided the development of art institutions and community art programs. The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the first federal relief program for artists, operated from 1933-1934. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided a follow-up for works begun under the PWAP. In 1934, two new programs continued and expanded government patronage of artists, the United States Treasury Section of Fine Arts Program, 1934-43, and the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), 1935-1943.

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Collection is arranged alphabetically by interviewee's last name.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Minnesota Artist Projects Through the Depression Years Oral History Project, Oral History Interviews of the Minnesota Artist Projects Through the Depression Years Oral History Project. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Submaster Files:

Digital submasters are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

Accession Information:

Accession number: AV2015.31

Processing Information:

Processed by: Karen Obermeyer-Kolb, April 2017

Catalog ID number: 990087938420104294

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Biographical Information: Cameron Booth (1892-1980) was born in Pennsylvania and trained at the Chicago Art Institute. He served in World War I and studied for a time in Paris. In 1921, he came to Minneapolis to teach at the Minneapolis School of Art. Booth was also a teacher and director at the St. Paul School of Art (1929-1942) and chairman of the PWAP Technical Committee (1933-1934). He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1942 and spent the year traveling and painting in the West. After four years in New York, Booth returned to Minnesota in 1948 and joined the staff of the University of Minnesota. Booth was an honorary member of the Minnesota Historical Society’s (MNHS) executive council beginning 1976 and MNHS owns many of his artworks.

For a full biography, see Nina Marchetti Archabal, “In Memoriam: Cameron Booth, 1892-1980. A Chronicle from His Scrapbook,” Minnesota History (Fall 1980): 100-110.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed are around art in Minnesota in the 1920s and 1930s including the artists, art students, teachers, and exhibitions in the Twin Cities; the cultural milieu of Minneapolis and St. Paul as well as the attitude toward impressionism; the Minnesota WPA, the Minnesota Artists Association, and many people of the Twin Cities art world.

Note: Audio for 1977 interview is recorded on same cassette as 1977 interview with Miriam Ibling.

Related Materials: The Minnesota Historical Society possesses a collection of Cameron Booth papers. His work is also cataloged in the fine art collection.

Location

OH 150.1

Oral history interview with Cameron Booth, 1971. 1 master audiotape reel: analog, 3 3/4 ips; 7 inch (1 hour, 10 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcipt (27 pages).

Interviewed by Melvin Waldfogel.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

Location

OH 150.2

Oral history interview with Cameron Booth, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (25 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. MP3. Transcript (6 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Andre Boratko (1911-1990) was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was three years old. The family settled in St. Paul, where Boratko graduated from Mechanic Arts High School. He attended the Chicago Art Institute and returned to the Twin cities to teach at the St. Paul School of Arts (1935-1936). He also worked under Clement Haupers on the WPA Federal Arts Project. As a WPA artist he painted a mural in the town hall at Milaca, Minnesota, and the Faribault School for the Deaf. Before that project was finished, however, he was transferred to the WPA Federal Art Project in South Dakota, where he taught community art classes. After he and his wife, Dorothy, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, Boratko taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts from 1946 to 1954. Besides his murals, he also worked in oil, watercolor, and sculpture. His murals were generally painted in restaurants and shopping centers. (see obituary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug. 25th, 1990).

Scope and Content: Subjects discusssed include involvement with the Federal Art Project as an administrator and painting the mural at Milaca.

Note: This interview is recorded on the same cassette as the 1977 interview with Charles Thwaites.

Related Materials: The Minnesota Historical Society collection includes another interview with Andre Boratko (OH 30: Twentieth Century Radicalism in Minnesota Oral History Project).

Location

OH 150.3

Oral history interview with Andre Boratko, August 9, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (20 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (6 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Sydney Glenn Fossum was born in 1909 in Aberdeen, South Dakota, the son of George and Olive Fossum. He studied art at the Minneapolis School of Art (1929-1933). After graduation, he was an artist with the Public Works of Art Project and served as an officer in the Minnesota Artists Association (1939). After serving in the U.S. Army (1943-1945), he taught art at the Minneapolis School of Art (1945-1950), Washington University (1950-1951), and the Des Moines Art Center (1953-1957). He also taught at other institutions, and was director of the Duluth Art Institute (1960-1962). Fossum married Bernice (Bunny) Olson in 1932. He died in San Francisco in 1978.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include Minnesota Arts Union; Federal Art Project; 1938 artist protests; Minnesota Artists Association; Fort Snelling murals; artists’ views on the WPA (Work Progress Administration) programs; the Walker Art Center.

Note: Audio recorded on same tape as 1977 interview with Edmund Lewandowski.

Related Materials: The Minnesota Historical Society possesses a collection of Syd Fossum’s papers including correspondence and art show catalogs. His work is also cataloged in both the photograph and art collections.

Location

OH 150.4

Oral history interview with Syd Fossum, August 3, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (30 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (8 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Frances Cranmer Greenman was born in 1890 in South Dakota. She studied at the Corcoran School of Art in New York City and was a portrait painter in various locations including New York, Minnesota, and Washington. Greenman died in 1981.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include life in New York as an artist and designer as well as painting of Agona-coma-goqui or “Woman Riding the Wind” (1912) and the portrait of Governor Karl F. Rolvaag that hangs in the Minnesota State Capitol.

Related Materials: The Minnesota Historical Society has some of Greenman's work in the photograph and fine art collections.

Location

OH 150.5

Oral history interview with Frances Cranmer Greenman, 1974. 1 master audiocassette (30 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (8 pages).

Interviewed by Lila Johnson Goff.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Richard Haines (1906-1984) was born in Marion, Iowa. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art in the early 1930s. He is well known for the modernist murals he painted with New Deal art projects, which include the mural in the Round Tower at Fort Snelling, the Willmar Armory mural, and the Sebeka Post Office mural in Minnesota.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include painting the mural in Sebeka, Minnesota; his views on the removal of the Fort Snelling murals; various other mural projects in Minnesota (Berwin, Hastings) and elsewhere (Cresco, Iowa; Clinton Missouri; Shelton, Washington; Wichita, Kansas); reflections on the WPA and its politics; and preservation of art work from WPA programs.

Related Materials: The Minnesota Historical Society has some of Haine's work in the photograph and fine art collections.

Location

OH 150.6

Oral history interview with Richard Haines, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (20 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (5 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Clement Haupers (1900-1982) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He served as secretary of the Minnesota State Arts Society in 1921 before studying art in Paris (1923-1929). Haupers was director of the Arts Section Minnesota State Fair (1931-1942), director of the Federal Arts Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Minnesota (1935-1941), and Assistant to the National Director of FAP (1941-1942). He also taught at the Minnesota Museum and Art School in St. Paul.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include institutionalization of the arts in the Twin Cities; the early years of the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN); art dealers in the 1920s and 1930s; WPA’s impact on artists and the art market in Minnesota; technology and art; exhibition venues in the early 1900s; abstract art in Minnesota; his artistic interest in light; as well as travels to and paintings of Mexico and Wyoming.

Related Materials: The Minnesota Historical Society possesses a collection of Harper’s manuscripts along with photographs of him and a selection of his paintings.

Location

OH 150.7

Oral history interview with Clement Haupers, 1975. 1 master audio tape reel: analog, 3 3/4 ips; 7 inches (30 minutes)and 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3.

Interviewed by Lloyd Hackl.

There is no transcript for this interview.

Digital version

Location

OH 150.8

Oral history interview with Clement Haupers, February 27, 1979. 1 master audiocassette (1 hour, 20 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3.

Interviewed by Nina Archabal and Nick Westbrook.

There is no transcript for this interview.

Digital version

Location

OH 150.9

Oral history interview with Clement Haupers, May 1979. 1 master audiocassette (45 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (15 pages).

Interviewed by Jane Hancock.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Miriam Ibling (1895-1985) was born in Parkersburg, Iowa. She studied under Cameron Booth at the Minneapolis School of Art and helped organize the Art League of Minneapolis. During the Great Depression Ibling painted several murals in Minnesota with the WPA, including murals in Stillwater High school, an Owatonna school library, a children’s hospital (later Sister Kenny Hospital), the USO Building in St. Paul, and Gaultier School in St. Paul.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include processes involved in painting murals at Stillwater High school, an Owatonna school library, a children’s hospital (later Sister Kenny Hospital), the USO Building in St. Paul, and Gaultier School in St. Paul. She also addresses what it was like for women artists taking part in WPA programs and the impact of the WPA on artists.

Note: Audio is recorded on same cassette as 1977 interview with Cameron Booth.

Related Materials: Photographs and work by Ibling can be found in the Minnesota Historical Society's collections.

Location

OH 150.10

Oral history interview with Miriam Ibling, August 4, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (25 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (6 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Edmund Lewandowski attended art school at the Leyton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and started working for the WPA after he graduated. He painted a mural in the Caledonia Post Office (Minnesota) and worked for the WPA Art Project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include starting to work for the WPA right out of art school; his art and the Minnesota Art Project; murals he painted in Caledonia, Minnesota and in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Note: Audio is recorded on same cassette as 1977 interview with Syd Fossum.

Location

OH 150.11

Oral history interview with Edmund Lewandowski, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (15 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (5 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Alexander Masley (1903-1996) was born in Akeley, Minnesota, the son of Eastern European immigrants. After growing up in the Twin Cities and graduating from Anoka County High School, Masley studied art at the Minneapolis School of Art and the University of Minnesota. He also worked as a commercial artist, drawing for advertisements and catalogs. In 1929 he won the Ethel Morrison Van Derlip Foreign Traveling Fellowship and spent a year traveling and studying in Europe, including at the Hans Hofmann School in Munich, Germany. He then taught art school in Minneapolis. In 1943, Masley and his family moved from Minnesota to Montana where he took a position teaching art at the University of Montana. He went on to teach in Texas and Wyoming. After receiving his doctorate from Columbia University in New York, Masley became a professor at the University of New Mexico and founded the University’s Art Education Program. Collections of his artworks are held by the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Minnesota Historical Society.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include early life in Akeley, Minnesota and Minneapolis, Minnesota; early school years; childhood jobs; move to Coon Rapids with his family; childhood games and outdoor activities; school in Coon Rapids and Anoka County High School; beginning art classes in Minneapolis and pursuing art as a teenager; the University of Minnesota; working as a stock boy and an errand boy; drawings for advertisements and catalogs; attending art school; learning wood engraving; becoming a recognized commercial artist in Minneapolis; family’s origins in Eastern Europe; conflict in the artistic community in the 1930s; teaching art school in Minneapolis; his views on design; losing his job teaching art in Minneapolis; teaching art under the Works Progress Administration; moving to Missoula to teach at the University of Montana; moving to Texas to teach at the University of Texas; graduate studies at Columbia University, New York City in the 1940s; studies and travels in London, Paris and the Hofmann School in Munich in 1929 and 1930; politics of the Twin Cities art world in the early 1900s; working as art director for the Globe magazine; his favorite works; and moving to New Mexico to teach at the University of New Mexico.

Related Materials: Work by Masley can be found in the Minnesota Historial Society's collections.

Location

OH 150.12

Oral history interview with Alexander Masley, October 6, 1987. Transcript (54 pages).

Interviewed by Helen White.

There is no audio for this interview.

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Karen Reineke is a resident and local historian of Milaca, Minnesota.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include WPA murals painted during the 1930s by Andre Boratko in the Milaca City Hall in an extremely limited fashion. Mention is made of the City Hall’s construction from native stone and of WPA projects in stonework at Garrison and at the Northside Park of Milaca. Other subjects discussed at greater length include family and city history as well as lumbering and agriculture in the area.

Location

OH 150.13

Oral history interview with Karen Reineke, August 29, 1977. Transcript (10 pages).

Interviewed by Nina Archabal.

There is no audio for this interview.

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Charles Thwaites painted the mural in the Windom, Minnesota post office during the 1930s under the auspices of the United States Treasury Department.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include the process of painting the mural in the Windom Post Office; views on the Works Progress Administration and the Treasury Department’s artist programs; women artists working in federal art programs during the Great Depression; and views on competitions for artist commissions.

Note: The audio for this interview is on the same tape as the 1977 interview with Andre Boratko.

Location

OH 150.14

Oral history interview with Charles Thwaites, August 10, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (20 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (6 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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Biographical Information: Elof Wedin (1901-1983) was born in Sweden and immigrated to Minnesota in 1919. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1920s. He resided in Minneapolis thereafter. During the Great Depression, Wedin worked as an artist on several New Deal projects, including a series of Minneapolis street scenes and works in post offices. Collections of his work are held by institutions including the Walker Art Center, the University of Minnesota, the Swedish Institute, and the Smithsonian.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include the process of creating murals for the WPA; painting post office murals; oversight of WPA art projects; easel paintings for the WPA; artists’ views on the WPA; and more recent works of the 1960s.

Location

OH 150.15

Oral history interview with Elof Wedin, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (50 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (11 pages).

Interviewed by George Reid and Nina Archabal.

Digital version

Transcript - Digital version

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

New Deal, 1933-1939.

Art -- Exhibitions -- Minnesota.

Art -- Study and teaching.

Artists -- Minnesota.

Public buildings -- Minnesota -- Design and construction.

Women artists -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Archabal, Nina Marchetti, 1940- interviewer.

Booth, Cameron, 1892-1980, interviewee.

Boratko, Andre, 1911-1990, interviewee.

Fossum, Syd, 1909-1978, interviewee.

Goff, Lila Johnson, interviewer.

Greenman, Frances Cranmer, 1890-1981, interviewee.

Haines, Richard, 1906-1984, interviewee.

Hancock, Jane H., 1949- interviewer.

Haupers, Clement, 1900-1982, interviewee.

Ibling, Miriam, 1895-1985, interviewee.

Lewandowski, Edmund, 1914-1998, interviewee.

Masley, Alexander, 1903-1996, interviewee.

Reid, George, interviewer.

Reineke, Karen, interviewee.

Thwaites, Charles Winstanley, 1904-2002, interviewee.

Waldfogel, Melvin, interviewer.

Wedin, Elof, 1901-1983, interviewee.

White, Helen M. (Helen McCann), 1916- interviewer.

Organizations:

Federal Art Project.

Public Works of Art Project (U.S.)

Document Types:

Audiocassettes.

Audiotapes.

Interviews.

Oral histories (document genres).

Sound recordings.

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