1934Charles Allen Winter painted the first City Hall New Deal mural, The Founding of Gloucester.Arts and Culture, Government and Public Service, City Government, Art

Winter’s murals are full of social commentary and didactic at their core. This was the first mural painted in Gloucester City Hall. It employed Winter’s typical allegory and heroic realism.

Chemists from Gloucester’s Russia Cement Company developed a special casein glue to fasten The Founding of Gloucester, which was painted on canvas to the wall. Because of the efficacy of the glue and its removability, after the New Deal, almost all the Gloucester murals would have been lost if not for one citizen, high school teacher and artist, Howard Curtis, who cared enough to save them. Because of him and the Russia Cement Company’s glue, many survived.