This oil on canvas mural in the was commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP), a part of the New Deal Era arts project established by then President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration to provide work for photographers, graphic artists, muralists, and painters. Original works of art like this were commissioned for many public buildings throughout the nation. The program ran from 1935-1943. The mural is on the east wall in the lobby of the Downers Grove Post Office on Curtiss Street.

Born in Boston on June 5, 1911, Elizabeth Tracy , later known as Tracy Montminy, was educated at Radcliffe. Her murals are in post offices in Maine and Massachusetts.

Post Office Muralist

The name Elizabeth Tracy Montminy may not be familiar to you but I’m sure you are familiar with her art work. Elizabeth is the artist who painted the mural on the east wall inside the Downers Grove Post office.  Since 1940 when it was painted many have enjoyed her work. Here is the story of how we have this mural in the Post Office.

Elizabeth Tracy as her name was in 1940 and signed at the bottom of the mural was born in 1911 in Boston, Massachusetts. As a young child she was interested in art and drawing and hoped to illustrate fashion designs. After graduating from Radcliffe College with a degree in Fine Arts in 1933 she needed to find a job. This was during the Great Depression so Elizabeth secured a position with the Works Projects Administration division of Fine Arts a government agency to employ artists. The WPA commissioned murals in public buildings with the hope they would boost the moral of the American people with uplifting subjects.

Elizabeth painted many murals from 1934 until the 1940’s Many were in train stations and post offices like the one she painted here. The Downers Grove mural is called Chicago: Railroad Center of the Nation and shows workers building railroads and loading mail on train cars. Her work was influenced by abstract Expressionism and  Cubism. After marrying her husband Pierre Montminy ,also an artist, she changed her name to Tracy Montminy. By the late 1940’s she was hired as an art teacher at the University of Missouri and taught mural painting. She continued her painting until 1981 and when she passed away in 1992 at the age of 81 she left her estate to the Boone County Historical Society in Missouri where they created an exhibit in 2006 called Painted Walls.  In 2011 there was a celebration there to honor her 100th birthday.

The Downers Grove Historical Society has also honored her by naming her mural Chicago: Railroad Center of the Nation as the Historic Site for 2003 and a plaque was placed in the post office near her mural.