Teaneck Public Library

December 2, 2009

The Puffin Foundation made a grant to the Teaneck Public Library to preserve four murals in the reference library. The murals were painted during the Great Depression in the United States in the years 1936-1939. The dedication plaque of the refurbished murals will read as follows:

The Teaneck Public Library’s Reference Room commissioned four murals by the Works Project Administration’s Federal Arts Project during the depths of the Great Depression. The WPA/Federal Arts Project was created by the federal government as confirmation of an ideal that government support of the arts was an obligation of a democratic society. Painted by Robert J. Martin, a local New Jersey artist in 1937, the murals represent the history of the printed word.

The murals were restored in 2008 thanks to the generous support of the Puffin Foundation Ltd. and the Teaneck Public Library Thayer Brown endowment fund.