Gustaf Dalstrom

Gustaf Dalstrom was born January 18, 1893, in Gotland, Sweden and died in Chicago, 1971.[1][4] He attended Lane Technical High School in Chicago and went to college at the Art Institute of Chicago. There, he studied under George Bellows and Randall Davey (1887-1964), two prominent artists of that time.[4] In his time at the Art Institute of Chicago, he received the Logan Award and Gold Medal for excellence.[1] After attending college, Dalstrom painted in Sweden, France, Italy and Germany and focused on oil, watercolor, and graphic mediums of art.[1] [5]

Dalstrom was the supervisor for the mural division and administrator for the Illinois Federal Art Project.[4] As a supervisor, he met with potential sponsors to discuss ideas and potential artists to discuss logistics before any work had begun.[4] Since Dalstrom was an established artist, he did not contribute work for relief. He was featured in numerous exhibitions during the twenties and all throughout the Great Depression. His artwork was shown at: The Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Exhibit of Chicago and Vicinity Artists sixteen times between 1919 and 1945; Annual Exhibition of American Artists, seven times between 1921 and 1937; The Ten Chicago, circa 1920 to 1940; International Watercolor Exhibition, 1929 to 1935; and he was the Illinois State director for the WPA/FAP Increase Robinson's gallery in Chicago. He also had many one-man exhibitions from 1933 to 1935 and served on staff of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History as well.[1][4]

The Great Indian Council - 1833, was a painting originally commissioned for the Chestnut Street Post Office at 840 North Clark Street.[2] It was commissioned in 1934, through the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture and is a five-foot-by-fifteen-foot oil painting, on canvas.[4] It was originally paired with Dalstrom's wife, Frances Foy's mural painting titled Advent of the Pioneers. The scene shows a group of Native Americans sitting and some standing, listening to their leader. Both murals were removed from the Chestnut Street Post Office in the 1980s when it was converted into a movie theater.[2] Frances Foy's mural was put into storage in 2001 and in 2002, The Great Indian Council - 1833 was treated beginning in 1999 to 2002, at The Chicago Conservation Center. It was restored in the Main Post Office sometime before 1995.[9] It was stated that both murals would be hung in the Main Post Office on 433 West Van Buren Street, but the US Postal Service vacated the Van Buren building in 1995.[10] The Main Post Office, now known as the Old Chicago Main Post Office, was bought by Bill Davies for seventeen million dollars on October 21, 2009. As a consequence The Great Indian Council - 1833 had to be moved yet again because the US Postal Service owns the murals and is required to care for them.[11]