Honors Alumnus Awarded Lioneld Jordan Fellowship in Labor and Working Class Studies

Photo Submitted

Michael Hartman with Julie Cronan (left) and Summer Hirtzel (right) at the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Mass. Photographed by Denise A. Gray.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University Libraries’ special collections department has awarded honors alumnus Michael Hartman the 2013 Lioneld Jordan Fellowship in Labor and Working Class Studies.

Hartman’s research explores the impact of the post office murals produced during the Depression era and funded by the New Deal’s Work Projects Administration. Twenty-one of the 1,500 murals were created for post offices in Arkansas. The scenes depicted were meant to inspire hope and restore faith in broken financial and political systems.

The working title of Hartman’s research is “An Exception to the Rule: Natalie Henry’s Local Industries Mural.” He will focus on the ways in which Henry’s Local Industries mural diverges from the typical WPA mural, particularly conditions affecting local workers and the industries depicted in the mural during the Great Depression. Local Industries originally was located in the U.S. Post Office in Springdale, and currently resides at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale. The idea for the project emerged from a term paper Hartman wrote for a class, American Art from 1900 to 1975, taught by Leo Mazow, associate professor of art history.

The fellowship awarded a stipend to Hartman for study in special collections through April 2014.

Hartman is the McDermott Curatorial Intern for European Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. He graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts in art history and German from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences in May 2013. He was the recipient of a Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship for undergraduate students to conduct in-depth research from the Arkansas Department of Education, the Honors College Study Abroad Grant from the University of Arkansas Honors College and the Sturgis Study Abroad Grant from the Fulbright College Honors Program.

The Lioneld Jordan Fellowship in Labor and Working Class Studies was established to honor the leadership and vision of Lioneld Jordan, the current mayor of Fayetteville. Jordan was an undergraduate student at the University of Arkansas, a carpenter with the university department of facilities management for 26 years, president of Local 965 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, president of the Northwest Arkansas Labor Council and is an advocate for the interests of working families.