Evelyn Longman created the relief sculpture frieze on the entablature above the door of the Hartford Post Office and Federal Building during the Great Depression, most likely in 1932-1933. The Art Deco style is svelte and modern in a spartan and classicizing way. The subject is the commitment of postal workers to deliver the mail. Longman merges the ancient Hellenistic and Roman tradition of mounted relay riders with the American nostalgia for the Pony Express riders of the West. Her figures are nude male riders in capes which have the stylistic feel of Greek vases or Roman relief sculpture.
The inscription on the entablature reads:
ACROSS UNBOUNDED REACHES OF THE SKY
OVER LONG TRAILS UPON THE LAND
BY LAKES, BY RIVERS AND THE TRACKLESS SEA
IN TEMPEST AND IN CALM, BY DAY AND NIGHT
WE SPEED AT YOUR COMMAND AND BEAR
THE TIDINGS AND THE TREASURES OF MANKIND
Pony Express
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