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An etching by Gustaf Dalstrom. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Midwest Auction Galleries Inc.

Dalstrom mural reinstalled in Illinois post office

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
An etching by Gustaf Dalstrom. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Midwest Auction Galleries Inc.
An etching by Gustaf Dalstrom. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Midwest Auction Galleries Inc.

HERRIN, Ill. (AP) – The Herrin Post Office is again home to a Gustaf Dalstrom painting after four decades.

The Southern Illinoisan reports the painting George Rogers Clark Conferring with Indians near Herrin Illinois, was returned Thursday to its original display wall. There was a rededication ceremony.

Tom Popham of Stillwater, Okla., was a special guest. His father was Herrin’s assistant postmaster and he saved the mural in 1968 when the post office was remodeled. Popham drove the mural to Chicago for restoration.

The painting depicts Clark’s meeting with Kaskaskia tribe members in 1778.

The federal government commissioned the work for $600 in 1940.

Gustaf Dalstrom (1893-1971) painted several murals in public schools and post offices. Another of his murals, The Great Indian Council – 1833, can be viewed in the South Loop Post Office in Chicago. Dalstrom served as president of the Chicago Society of Artists in the late 1920s.

Herrin is about 15 miles northeast of Carbondale, Ill.

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Information from: Southern Illinoisan, http://www.southernillinoisan.com

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AP-WF-05-27-11 1952GMT