Lisbon, located in the beautiful Sheyenne River Valley of southeastern North Dakota, is home to a historic post office building built in 1939. Within that history is the story of a lost sculpture.
During President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, Lisbon received $85,000 from the New Deal in 1938 to build a new post office, which was completed in 1939. Federal funds covered the cost of the site, the construction of the building, and landscaping.
Between 1930 and 1940, eight other North Dakota towns, including Langdon, New Rockford, and Rugby, also received federal funds for new post offices. These four towns were authorized to include decorative art in their new buildings.
On this date, in 1939, Time magazine published an article about how the Works Progress Administration and the U.S. Treasury Department allocated money to artists for murals and other artwork for New Deal building projects. The post offices in Langdon, New Rockford, and Rugby each received a mural painting. Lisbon, however, received a sculpture through the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts, as new post offices fell under the U.S. Treasury Department’s control.
In 1942, a young California artist named James Lee Hansen received an $850 contract to create a sculpture titled “Family Group,” which celebrated the strength of North Dakota families. Hansen had made a name for himself by winning a major competition three years earlier to sculpt a limestone statue of young Abraham Lincoln for the new U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles, earning $7,200 for that sculpture.
Hansen completed the “Family Group” sculpture for the Lisbon Library in 1943. Using terracotta (unglazed brownish-red earthenware), he crafted a reclining mother and father, with a young child standing between them, all with expressions of sincere devotion to each other. The sculpture measured 7 feet 6 inches in length and 2 feet 9 inches in height.
Unfortunately, due to World War II, the sculpture was never installed. Legend has it that the “Family Group” pieces were stored in the Lisbon Post Office basement for 30 years. In 1972, the artwork was reportedly relocated to Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution.
Dakota Datebook by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck
Sources:
- “Art Muralist Team,” Time, October 2, 1939, www.time.com, accessed January 31, 2012.
- “Federal Post Office Construction in N.D., 1895-1940,” National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination Documentation Form, Sept. 1989, Sect. E, p. 17-19, 24-25.
- Lisbon, N.D., 1880-1900 (Lisbon: Lisbon Centennial Committee, 1980), p. 34-35.
- “Federal Building Art Selected,” Los Angeles Times, August 31, 1939, p. 21; “U.S. Grants Fresno Youth Lincoln Statue Contract,” Fresno Bee, August 30, 1939, p. 11; “Young California Artist Is His Own Model For A Lincoln Statue,” Life, September 9, 1940, p. 130-131.
- James Lee Hansen (1917-1993), California Death Index, 1940-1997, ancestry. com, accessed January 25, 2018; “James Lee Hansen (1917-1993),” U.S. Find A Grave Index, ancestry.com, accessed January 25, 2018.
- U.S. General Services Administration, “U.S. Courthouse, Los Angeles, CA,” www.gsa.gov/historic-buildings,” accessed January 25, 2018.
- “Post Office Sculpture (Missing); Lisbon, ND,” https://livingnewdeal.org, accessed March 1, 2016.
- Jimmy Emerson, “Lisbon, ND 58054,” www.flickr.com/photos, accessed April 25, 2016.
