SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- The U.S. Postal Service recently decided it
wants a historic mural depicting slavery in Narragansett to go to the
future Heritage Harbor Museum in Providence, instead of the
Pettaquamscutt Historical Society that has pleaded for the painting for
more than a year.
But the museum has backed off on its bid to house the work and says it
supports the local organization's efforts to keep it in South County.
Museum officials say they will ask the postal service to reconsider its
decision.
"We weren't aware of who else might be interested in the mural when we
put in our expression of interest," said museum spokeswoman Cathy Blaney
yesterday.
"Since the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society has made renovations and
they have space for it, we don't want to compete with them for it. We're
penning a letter with the historical society, asking the post office to
reconsider."
South Kingstown's Town Council, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty and U.S.
Rep. James R. Langevin, among others, agreed the controversial mural,
painted by renowned illustrator Ernest Hamilin Baker in the 1930s,
should stay in South County.
But in a letter sent to the society within the past few days, the Post
Office's district manager, Don Marshall, said the mural would receive
more exposure at the museum.
"It's the mandate of the postal service to loan historically significant
pieces of art to places where the public will receive the maximum
exposure to the mural," said Christine Dugas, spokeswoman for the postal
service.
In the letter, Marshall said he was concerned the society's hours of
operation, 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays and by appointment, and
lack of handicapped access would restrict the public's access to the
14-by-6-foot painting.
The historical society's members are not convinced, however.
The painting has sat in the Williamstown (Mass.) Art Conservation Center
for a year and a half. During this time, the postal service has appeared
indecisive about the future of the mural, which hung in the Wakefield
post office for 60 years and was commissioned as part of the federal
government's Work Projects Administration.
The painting is ready to be shipped to its future home, barring a few
last-minute touches, the director of the conservation center said last
month.
"There's something going on here, we just don't know what yet," said
Town Council President Barbara A. Hackey, who said she'll press the
issue today when she sees Langevin at a luncheon.
In addition, the Heritage Harbor Museum isn't scheduled to open for
another three years. What access will the public have to the mural until
then?
Dugas said she didn't know, but later said that Marshall will contact
the historical society and arrange a meeting in the near future "to see
if something can be worked out in the interim."
"I think we have a right to go back to the post office and find out what
the intentions are," said Perry Viles, president of the society's board
of directors.
"Our first concern, whether we get it or not, is to make sure the mural
is preserved and that it stays in South County."
The mural has stirred controversy with its content: it depicts an
overseer and black slaves in 18th-century Narragansett.
The society's director, Christopher P. Bickford, has said in previous
interviews that the mural requires a historical context the local group
can provide.
South Kingstown's Town Hall and the University of Rhode Island backed
off plans to request the mural and the town later threw its support
behind the historical society's bid.
After the Williamstown conservation center advised the mural be placed
in a controlled climate and out of direct sunlight, the historical
society worked to provide such an environment in the Mumford room on the
second floor of the society, which is in the former Washington County
Jail in Kingston.
But Viles said he was mystified by the new requirements laid out in
Marshall's letter.
"They never even asked us how we'd address them, and we can," Viles said.
Viles also said the group still hopes the mural will end up in Kingston,
especially now that the Heritage Harbor Museum is cooperating in their
cause.
