• Blogs
• Bookmark/Share
• Contact Us

Press Release: May 19, 2010
(Revised)

National Archives at Kansas City

National Archives and General Services Administration to Dedicate WPA-era Murals by Artist Edward "Buk" Ulreich

Kansas City, (MO)…The National Archives at Kansas City in partnership with the General Services Administration will dedicate two murals painted by Edward “Buk” Ulreich at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, May 21 at the National Archives. Indians Watching Stagecoach in the Distance and Pony Express were commissioned as a part of the Department of the Treasury's New Deal fine arts program in 1937 for the Federal Building located in Columbia, Missouri.

GSA Regional Administrator Jason Klumb will present the murals at the dedication and reception. He will be joined in remarks by John Morgan, United States Postal Service; Denis Paskauskas and Lori Cox-Paul, National Archives at Kansas City; and Jan Schall, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The public and members of the media are invited to attend the ceremony.

The murals were originally commissioned by the Section of Painting and Sculpture, Department of the Treasury, for the Federal Building in Columbia, Missouri. During the renovation of the building in 1967, the murals were removed and claimed as salvage by the contractor, Knipp Construction Company. The Pony Express mural was displayed in city offices from 1983-2004. The mural, Indians Watching Stagecoach in the Distance, was returned to GSA in 1981 and reinstalled in the Columbia Federal Building. In March 2004, the Federal Building was transferred from GSA ownership. The National Archives has acquired these murals for public viewing and are on long term loan from GSA.

Edward “Buk” Ulreich (1889-1966) was born in Hungary and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and at Pennsylvania Fine Arts Academy, where he won the Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, allowing him to study in Europe in 1913-14. Intrigued by the American West, “Buk” worked as a cowhand and incorporated many of the individuals he encountered in his artwork. After serving in World War I, Ulreich moved to California, where he completed his first mural for the famed Denishawn Dance Studio. He was compensated in part with dancing lessons from Martha Graham. His public works include murals for Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, and U.S. Post Offices in Tallahassee, Florida; Concord, North Carolina; and New Rockford, North Dakota.

The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to more than 50,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by nearly 100 Federal agencies. Serving the Central Plains Region, the archives holds records from the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The facility is located at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108. The National Archives at Kansas City is open Tuesday–Saturday 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. for exhibits viewing and Tuesday–Saturday from 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. for research.

# # #

NREA 10–25

Top of Page