A Call for Liberty

Abstract

In 1937, the United States Section of Fine Arts unveiled two murals by Rockwell Kent in the US Post Office Department headquarters in Washington, DC. Depicting the farthest points served by the postal service, the murals were intended by the Section to present a unified vision of the country. But Kent, in collaboration with reporter Ruby A. Black and ethnologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson, inserted a political statement into one of the paintings encouraging Puerto Ricans to throw off the yoke of US rule. Based on unpublished correspondence between Kent, Black, and Stefansson, I argue that Kent’s message of universal democracy collided with his commitment to cultural nationalism and with the nationalistic nature of Section commissions. The incident resonates with controversies around US government-sponsored art projects that continue to this day.