Resorts at Sea: November

The image to your right is what’s known in the academic world as a “primary source.”

A recently acquired addition to my collection, this Section of Fine Arts publication, Bulletin No. 22, dated September 1940, is the list of awards for the Competition for the Decoration of the SS PRESIDENT JACKSON [sic]. Though I’ve created such a list from a variety of sources, this is the proverbial Grail. (Well, aside from the correspondence notifying the winners.) It also mentions a report presented by the jury evaluating the works submitted and ultimately chosen which I would really love to track down. And I cannot believe it took them only four days to examine the 1,462 designs, but that’s what it says. Alas, there are no pictures of the winning designs in this publication.

Now I need to find the bulletin announcing the President Jackson competition for the submission guidelines. Only here will we find size requirements that have only been hinted at elsewhere.

One of these works found its way to the National Gallery of Art in DC. The de Kooning mural for the President Jackson’s library was done in four sections, and is 60 inches high and 190 inches wide. The Jackson was requisitioned for World War II service in 1941, laid up in 1958, and scrapped in 1973. This mural was given to the NGA in 1971, and is currently in storage.

That two year discrepancy made me wonder if any other works had been rescued. I asked the NGA for further details regarding the provenance of the de Kooning. They were unaware of this competition and eager to help. Their file notes said someone was working up a book regarding de Kooning and contacted the Maritime Administration on the whereabouts of this library mural. Arrangements were made to board the Jackson, which was at anchor in the Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay. They examined the mural, and prepared it for removal and shipment.

With the exception of the dining room, all the public rooms were on the Promenade Deck. During a walk around, they took notice of another large work, Adelaide Briggs’ overmantel in the main hall and that was later shipped to the American Merchant Marine Museum in early 1973. The NGA also said sometimes works of art from the various WPA projects were ultimately transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and try contacting them to see what they know. One of the curators at the SAAM was unaware of this competition and wrote off these works as lost.

Given the fact that practically all of the art in this project has been destroyed over the years, I had prepared myself for more of the same; though finding the de Kooning was a glimmer. In looking through a Shipyard Bulletin (magazine for Newport News Shipbuilding) summarizing the restoration of the America after her World War II service, I saw a photo of the officer’s mess, and in the background was a mural. I emailed Bill Lee – historian for the America – and he confirmed that aside from a few pieces of sculpture, the art work was either exposed or covered up.

Officer's Mess on the West Point (ss America in peacetime).

At right is Barry Faulkner's decorative marine map.

The mess was in the First Class Smoking Room.

So … the art onboard the President Jackson-class traveled the globe during World War II, was laid up along with the ships by the late 1950s, and destroyed when those ships were scrapped in the mid-1970s. Man that sucks. However, one of the articles I’ve turned up is now in the files of the National Gallery of Art, and that’s very cool.