Idle Artists of the Great Depression – A Pictorial Record of the Civilian Conservation Corps

Charles  Foster  (1913 – 2012)

Four years after the stock market crash of 1929 America was grappling with a profound economic depression. One quarter of the nation was unemployed and a staggering number were hungry and homeless.   Newly elected president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) wasted little time as he and his and his administrations scrambled to right the ship of a floundering America.  Within days of his March 4, 1933 inauguration, FDR would propose the first of his New Deal work programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and one way he would garner support for this program would be by publicity.

During this desperate time, art and the purchase of it seemed irrelevant. A New York City matron would proclaim, “How can I buy art when people are starving”.

Of all the New Deal programs, the CCC was FDR’s favorite and by the summer of 1933, it quickly took hold and began to flourish.  Before the end of the year another the government make work program was initiated, the Civil Works Authority (CWA). Using reserves from the CWA, the first ever federally funded art program, The Public Works of Art Project was organized

During the PWAP months both male and female artists were given assignments to create art that would depict the “American Scene”.  A few  were selected and sent into CCC camps to make a pictorial record and their arrival was announced in the national CCC newspaper “Happy Days“.[1]

Both FDR and CCC Director Robert Fechner recognized the positive results an artistic interpretation of the CCC would offer the program. Artists produced a varied collection of oils, watercolors, woodcarvings, sculptures and drawings, from portraits to landscapes, depicting life and work in the camps. The art was displayed in the Corcoran Museum of Art and, at Eleanor’s request,  some of this work was displayed in the White House.

The PWAP was administered by a special section within the Treasury Department and was headed by Edward Bruce.  Through his leadership, the PWAP program provided temporary work for 3,749 unemployed artists of ability. This income was sorely needed during the harsh winter of 1933-1934. Although it was short lived, lasting a mere five months, it was pivotal to the American art world and would lay the foundation for future government programs that would sponsor the arts and artists.

When the funding ended, Edward Bruce was anxious to continue the help for struggling artists and approached CCC Director Fechner with a unique proposal. Bruce suggested that artists be employed and assigned to CCC camps as Art Instructors.  Fechner met with FDR and although there are no chronicles of this conference, (simply because President Roosevelt allowed no recordings of Oval office meetings) there are copies of Fechner’s follow up letters to Edward Bruce.

Director Fechner inflexibly detailed the presidents’ “idea”.  FDR approved the employment of male artists in CCC camps, but not as instructors. They would enter as regular enrollees for six months and work 40 hours a week. Their compensation would be the full $30 monthly allotment. They would provide their own supplies and art created would become the property of America. CCC Artists would be exempt from camp and fatigue duty but were not eligible for advancement or promotions. Fechner set a limit of 100 artist assignments during each 6-month period. For PWAP Director Edward Bruce this was a disappointing arrangement but, it was all he was offered and there were only four months left in the third enrollment period, time was of the essence.

Bruce turned to his able staff in the Treasury Department, William Johnstone and Edward Rowan. Together they had managed the previous assignments of PWAP artists to CCC camps. Ultimately, it would be Edward Rowan who would direct the CCC artist program until it ended in 1937.

Night letters were sent to inform and instruct the district art directors, nationwide, of this new program; quotas were given along with a request for immediate recommendations, arrangements for transportation and assignments would follow.  At the same time, Rowan was coordinating with the Army a list of appropriate camps, whose commanders were notified to expect and accommodate these new enrollees with the status of “artist enrollee”.

Among the first group of untried young men to enroll was Jacksonville native and self-taught portrait artist, Charles Clarence Foster (1913 – 2012). Fortunately, for Charles Foster his paperwork was processed quickly even if there was a miscommunication regarding the $30 monthly allotment; $25 was sent home to his mother.  On July 25, 1934, Charles received instructions and a train ticket to Decatur, Alabama, a 24-hour journey from Florida.  As the train moved through Alabama Charles found himself joined by other newly enrolled CCC boys and as a group they advanced to their final destination, Moulton, Alabama.

The Moulton train depot was 6 ½ miles south of the CCC camp. There they were “met by a driver and one of those 1 ½ ton trucks that had been fitted with board seats. This was my introduction to the tooth-rattling rides I was to experience many times”.[2]

Charles felt that Eve Alsman Fuller, PWAP Director for Florida, was responsible for his CCC artist position and he never knew the how and whys someone from Jacksonville, Florida was assigned to a CCC camp in northern Alabama. But, he was well prepared when he arrived at Company #463 with his homemade footlocker containing his art supplies and a “beautiful mahogany and brass camera”.  He quickly assimilated into the daily routine at Camp Joe Wheeler, all while observing, painting and drawing during his two-month stay.[3]

The twelve miles of road construction and forestry work along with the building of a cast cement bridge was hot and dirty work for Company 463, especially during an Alabama summer. The site for Camp Joe Wheeler was ill conceived. The natural spring, which was expected to supply the camp, dried up during summer months and this resulted in a severe water shortage that no amount of well digging would resolve. Water had to be transported daily from the town of Moulton and the each boy was allotted just a canteen cup to brush their teeth.[4]

Charles, however, with a position of resident artist (a status that confused the company commanders) availed himself to one of the benefits that came with staying in camp during the day. He and the cooks were the only enrollees allowed to shower daily, all the others were trucked into town for their 10 cent baths. This lack of water may account for the unsatisfactory inspection reports the camp received; the kitchen, infirmary and latrines were deemed unclean with offensive odors. [5]

And then there were the bedbugs…” they would hide during the day in the torn tarpaper insulation on the walls of the barracks and then come out in full force at night…I was careful to keep everything I owned away from the wall. Even that did not keep them away…I learned from the other boys to get gasoline in a Coke bottle, take the bed clothes off, and pour it into all the places in my cot where bedbugs could be….prior to my coming to camp, one of the barracks had been destroyed by fire and it occurred to me that  this gasoline treatment for bedbugs could have been the cause of it.”[6]

Charles prevailed upon the head forester, Mr. Disiker, that it was impossible to set up an easel and paint in a barracks full of energetic CCC boys. This was a familiar complaint that Edward Rowan, back in the Washington DC offices, would hear repeatedly from artists at the camps. Charles was among the fortunate artists to find a sympathetic ear with those in command. They provided him a vacant forester’s cabin, he moved in and made himself a satisfactory studio in which to live and work.

Considering the lack of water, it is no surprise that there was no darkroom at the camp. Charles brought his own film but he needed special developing equipment to process it. The people of Moulton were very accommodating to the CCC boys in the forest and the local photographer graciously opened his darkroom to Charles; allowing him to process and print his photographs.  The images made of the camp and surrounding area brought 25 cents a print and for 50 cents Charles would customize the boys’ footlockers by painting them with their names, this income supplemented his $5 monthly allowance.

At the end of the enrollment period, September 30, 1934, Charles packed up his supplies and personal belongings into his homemade footlocker and returned to Jacksonville, Florida. Because of the water problem, the camp was abandoned and moved to another location.  Decades later Charles returned to Decatur and was unable to find a footprint of Camp Joe Wheeler but did spot, what he believed, was the remains of the cement bridge.

At least one and possibly two boxes of Charles’ art was shipped from the camp to the Treasury Department in DC. Edward Rowan acknowledged the receipt of two oils and six watercolors. Rowan wrote Charles and complemented him by stating, “I am putting aside the water color “C.C.C. Architecture” to call to the attention of Mrs. Roosevelt and Mr. Robert Fechner.”   In addition another watercolor, “Building Dam”, was also singled out for exhibition at the March 1935 “Life in the CCC”  at the National Museum in Washington, DC.[7]

Charles continued his artistic endeavors joining the WPA Florida Federal Arts Project in Jacksonville and was an administrator in charge of distributing exhibits. While there, he met writer, Veronica Huss and photographed the project she was working on, which was never published. [8] Fifty years later Charles collected the writings and with his photographs published:  “Conch Town  USA – Bahamian Fisherfold in Riviera Beach, Florida.”  He built historical musical instruments; violas and harpsichords and even played the banjo when he joined the CCC camp band.  When he left Florida, he made his home for many years within the artistic environment of New Orleans but was forced to move after Hurricane Katrina. Charles wrote poetry and composed a piano Sonatina and a ballet for the United Nations. He taught at the Miami Technical High School and was an advertising art director. Because of his breath of interests, skills and accomplishment, he has been called a “renaissance man. [9]He has two children, Chuck in University Place, Washington and daughter Jeanne Foster, in Berkeley, CA. He was predeceased by his wife of 60 years Buford Mecklin Foster.

Charles Foster passed away on March 21, 2012 at Allenmore Hospital in Tacoma, Washington.

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In 2009 I had the pleasure of connecting with Charles.[10]  We stayed in touch via emails, telephone and snail mail.  On several occasions, we would ask each other the same nagging question: “What became of his art, and the art work of the other CCC artists?”

In the spring of 2010 I had the good fortune of finally meeting him.  He was living with his son Chuck and daughter-in-law Dorothy in University Place, Washington. They graciously welcomed us into their home and for the better part of a day; I listened and learned from one of the early CCC artists. It was sad to hear that his eyesight was failing, which made painting difficult if not impossible but, Charles remained optimistic. When I last spoke with him in December 2011, he was 98 and recovering from experimental eye surgery that he hoped would restore his vision.

Because Charles had the equipment and presence of mind to photograph some of his work, we are fortunate to have black and white copies of him and his CCC art. A majority of the images in this CCC artist monograph are credited to him.

With my friend and mentor, Charles Foster, I always found approval and encouragement.  I assured him my research would continue as would the search for the art and stories of the” Idle Artists of the Great Depression”  and their pictorial record of the CCC.

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