Appointment Form for Ansel Adams
10/10/1941
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This form appointed photographer and conservationist Ansel Adams to the position of Photographic Muralist for the National Park Service. Adams was appointed at "$22.22 per [day] ... limited to 180 actual working days per [year]."
In the mid-1930s, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes conceived the idea of commissioning painted murals for the department's headquarters building in Washington, DC. Impressed by Ansel Adams's work, Ickes later broadened the scope of the project to include mural-size photographs and recommended Adams.
Adams began his travels to national parks in October 1941. A year later he submitted prints to the Department of the Interior. However, the mural project was halted during World War II and never resumed. In 2010, the Department of the Interior finally installed 26 murals in an exhibit titled Ansel Adams: The Mural Project 1941-1942.
This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Civil Service Commission.
National Archives Identifier:
7582643Full Citation: Appointment Form for Ansel Adams; 10/10/1941; Adams, Ansel; Official Personnel File of Ansel E. Adams, 6/10/1941 - 12/10/1943; Records of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, Record Group 146; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/appointment-ansel-adams, November 2, 2024]