Auburn Post Office Mural

The "Threshing" mural was commissioned in 1936 by the US Government. The artist, Ethal Magafan travelled to Nebraska to research the subject prior to painting the mural. Ms. Magafan used sketches of actual harvest scenes in Nemaha County, Nebraska. This mural was readily received with appreciation from the Auburn community. The theme of depicting local agriculture was very popular in the 1930's. It was said "A better subject could not have been chosen, for the old threshing machine is rapidly going out of use, and inside of another generation it will be a thing of the past and will stand as a memory of the by-gone days." This oil canvas mural was pasted to the wall of the Auburn Post office in 1938.

Ethel Magafan, the artist who created this mural, studied at Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. Ethel was in her early twenties when she painted this mural. Of the program's 850 commissions for murals, only approximately one-sixth were awarded to women and minority artists. In the 1930's, Ethel received her first of seven Government commissions when she was commissioned to produce a painting for the US Post Office in Auburn, Nebraska. Her other paintings commissioned by the US Government hang in the U.S. Senate Chamber, the Social Security Building and the Recorder Deeds Building in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Post Offices in Wynne, Arkansas; Mudsill, Oklahoma; and Denver, Colorado