Resources Available Online
“1934: A New Deal for Artists” by Smithsonian American Art Museum co-curator Ann Wagner in 2010
Website: “The Living New Deal”
Published Works
Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island (2016) by Christy Clark-Pujara
The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807 (1978) by Jay Coughtry
Inventing New England’s Slave Paradise (1995) by Robert K. Fitts
The Negro in Colonial New England (1942) by Lorenzo Johnston Greene
Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A history of slavery in New England (2019) by Jared Ross Hardesty
Wall-to-Wall America: Post-Office Murals in the Great Depression (2000) by Karal Marling
A History of Kingston, Rhode Island 1700-1900 (2004) by Christian McBurney
Black bondage in the North (1973) by E. McManus
Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780-1860 (1998) by Joanne Pope Melish
Why the New Deal Matters (2021) by Eric Rauchway
Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal (1984) by Marlene Park and Gerald Markowitz
New England Bound: Slavery and colonization in early America (2017) by Wendy Warren
Exhibit Navigation
1: Introduction
2: Ernest Hamlin Baker
3: Great Depression & New Deal
4: Treasury Section of Fine Arts
5: Baker’s Commission & Research
6: Slavery in Southern Rhode Island
7: Baker’s Artistic Process
8: The Finished Mural
9: Wakefield Post Office
10: Why the Mural Matters
11. Share Your Thoughts
12. Further Reading
This exhibit is made possible through major funding support from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. The Council seeds, supports, and strengthens public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement by and for all Rhode Islanders.