One of many murals in the ground floor lobby Bronx General Post Office created by Ben and Bernarda Shahn, working for the US Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture. The series is called Resources of America and it illustrates the nobility of the American worker, inspired by the Walt Whitman poem I Hear America Singing. This mural shows the picking of cotton.

References:

• Ben Shahn Murals, Lehman College.
• WPA-Era Post Office Murals by American Realist Painter, Ben Shahn, Threatened, Artes Magazine, April 11, 2013.
• Raynor, Patricia, New Deal Post Office Murals, Off The Wall Volume 6, Issue 4, October-December 1997, Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

The New Deal in NYC 1932-1943 | Frank da Cruz | fdc@columbia.edu