Tracy Montminy, who completed early works as Elizabeth Tracy, (1911–1992) was an American artist and muralist. During the WPA's era, she painted murals in civic buildings, including murals in the library in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the fire and police building of Saugus, Massachusetts; the Milton, Massachusetts, post office; Medford, Massachusetts City Hall; the post office of Downers Grove, Illinois; and the post office in Kennebunkport, Maine, as well as others both in the U.S. and abroad. She was an art instructor at the University of Missouri and the American University of Beirut, continuing her own painting projects simultaneously with her teaching into the 1980s. Upon her death, she established a trust to create the Montminy Art Gallery in Columbia, Missouri.
Early life
Elizabeth Tracy was born on June 5, 1911, in Boston, Massachusetts. She began painting and drawing images for stories as a child and initially wanted to illustrate fashion designs. Her early education was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her studies continued at Radcliffe College. Graduating with honors in Fine Arts in 1933, Tracy studied with the Italian painter Rico Lebrun at the Art Students League of New York between 1934 and 1935.
Career
In 1934, Tracy began working for the Works Project Administration (WPA) through the Section of Painting and Sculpture (later called the Section of Fine Arts). Murals in public buildings were intended to boost the morale of the American people from the effects of the Depression by depicting uplifting subjects. Murals were commissioned through competitions open to all artists in the United States. She initially worked as an assistant to other artists, working on the murals in the public library in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Cambridge library project included four murals, which Tracy completed with Arthur Willis Oakman. Tracy's first solo commission was a mural for the fire and police building of Saugus, Massachusetts. She began work on The Founding of Saugus in 1935 in the courthouse of the police station. The mural depicted the early meeting of Native Americans and the English settlers who founded the town. When the police station was demolished, the mural was moved to the auditorium of the Saugus Town Hall.
After completion of the Saugus mural, it is likely that she completed the mural for the Salinas y Rocha y Cia department store in Mexico City, since it was completed prior to her application for the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1939. Tracy was selected to paint the mural for the Milton, Massachusetts, post office. The painting, The Suffolk Resolves: Oppression and Revolt in the Colonies adorns a wall in the office of the post service manager. Completed in 1938, it was restored by a conservator from Chicago in 2010, after storm damage to the post office. Following the project in Milton, Tracy began work on a mural at the Medford City Hall in Medford, Massachusetts. Her mural, located on the second floor in what is now the solicitor's office, was called Terror of the Wilderness. The mural's theme depicts the trials colonists faced with images on the left representing plague victims and on the right showing nude natives attacking settlers. Completed in 1939, the nudity caused controversy when unveiled and it was discussed whether it should be painted over or preserved. After completion of the mural, Tracy was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to run from September 1, 1940 for one year.