Work Project Administration

Boonville Mural

In 1941, the WPA invited Ida York Ableman to submit a design to be considered for a mural in the newly constructed post office in Boonville, Indiana. After several revisions the proposal for Boonville Beginnings, a depiction of Ratliff Boone, the city’s founder was agreed upon.

Boonville Beginnings is a 4’x9’ casein tempera mural in which Ableman portrays the life of the pioneer. Ableman, as did others of her time, utilized the Regionalist genre to illustrate ‘American life’. She uses a pallet of mostly brown, which give the scene a feeling of somberness. This feeling is further developed through the subject (Ratliff Boone) being alone. He is shown as a settler with his tools and animals (horse and wagon, dog, ax, rifle and plow) in a local landscape.