Artist:  Daniel Olney  (1909-    )

Title:  Man and Woman, Arkansas

Date:  194
0
Dimensions:  woman-2 ft. 3 in. x 2 ft.
                       guitar and plow-2 ft. x 2 ft.
                       man-3 ft. 4 in. x 2 ft. 3 in.

Medium:  painted plaster reliefs

Location:   Berryville Post Office
                 located at 101 East Madison Avenue, Berryville, Arkansas

About the Mural:  Daniel Olney was commissioned for $750 to create a mural for Berryville, Arkansas on the basis of merit of the model submitted in the Salina, Kansas Competition. The figures were designed for Salina, Kansas, but were transformed into man and woman for Arkansas. Olney specifically created a plow and guitar to show a union of work and play. He encountered some trouble relating the sculpture to the wall, their smaller size, approximately three feet tall, does not entirely cover the space above the postmaster's door.

In this mural, Rural Arkansas is characterized by the figures of a farmer on the right holding a sheaf of wheat and a fork in his hands. On the left, his wife holds an old butter churn that is so often found beside a stove or next to a woodshed. In the center is a relief of a plow crossed by a guitar, suggesting work and play.

About the Artist: Daniel Olney was born in New York City in 1909. he studied sculpture under Gutzon Borglum and also at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design and the Art Students League. Later he studied at the Bavarian Art Trade School. He returned to New York to work under Paul Manship. He exhibited at the New York World's Fair and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Olney has taught at the New York Public School and also executed work for the Langston Terrace Housing project. His other work for the Section of Fine Arts includes sculpture for the Marion, Virginia Post office.

About the Location:  Berryville, in Carroll County, was founded by Blackburn H. Berry in 1850. Mail service was established on July 13, 1852. The first settler in the area was David Williams in 1931 and Carroll County was established November 1, 1933. During the Civil War most of the town was burned.