Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 8 p.

Format: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav files. Duration is 25 min.

Summary: An interview of Ethel Magafan conducted 1964 Nov. 5, by Joseph S. Trovato for the Archives of American Art.

Magafan speaks of her earliest associations with the WPA Federal Art Project; receiving commissions for murals in post offices and government buildings; subject matter of the murals she painted; her life in Woodstock, N.Y.; and her work methods.

Biographical/Historical Note

Ethel Magafan (1915 or 6 -1993) was a mural painter in Woodstock, N.Y. Birthdate cited as both Oct. 10, 1916 and Aug. 10, 1915.

Provenance

Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Transcript: microfilm reel 3949 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ethel Magafan, 1964 Nov. 5. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.