Project Files

Project files document approximately twenty-one of Shahn's commissions. Some projects are more fully documented than others with files containing correspondence tracing the evolution and execution of a project, including some letters from Shahn, in addition to proposals, contracts, scattered notes and sketches, blueprints, specifications, financial and printed material, and photographs. However, some projects listed here were ultimately never executed or are represented by only a few items such as receipts, specifications, and photographs. The series includes files for some of Shahn's most important mural commissions such as those for the Jersey Homesteads community center, the Bronx Central Post Office, and the Social Security building in Washington D.C. 2018 addition includes a drawing for the "Great State of Wisconsin" mural project. Files documenting the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Roosevelt, New Jersey, include contact prints of the memorial's designer, Shahn's son Jonathan Shahn, and his portrait bust of Roosevelt, in addition to a photograph of Ben Shahn at the dedication ceremony for the memorial.