Social Security: Unemployment Compensation, (sculpture).

Social Security: Unemployment Compensation, (sculpture).

Davis, Emma Lu, 1905-1964, sculptor.

Social Security: Unemployment Compensation, (sculpture).

Unemployment Compensation, (sculpture).

Designed 1938. Modeled 1940. Carved 1941.

Digital Reference:

Relief: granite.

Relief: approx. 7 1/2 ft. x 6 1/2 ft.

(Upper left side:) 1940/(symbol, possibly the Chinese symbol for horse.) unsigned

One of four low relief panels on the theme of Social Security installed in the recessed areas over the entrances to the building. This low relief panel made with incised lines against highly polished granite is located over the Fourth Street entrance and depicts an unemployed worker being comforted by a coworker. A standing male figure dressed in a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and work boots, holding lunch box in his proper left hand reaches out to a seated male figure with his proper right hand. The seated male figure to his proper right is shirtless and shoeless. He sits hunched over with his head hung down. His proper right arm rests on his proper right leg and holds his proper right hand up to his forehead. His proper left arm hangs down at his side and the palm of his hand us open facing outward. The figures are surrounded by a carved line drawing of a waist-length-male profile looking toward his proper right.

Figure group -- Male

Occupation -- Labor

State of Being -- Mood -- Desolation

Outdoor Sculpture -- District of Columbia -- Washington

Administered by United States General Services Administration, Washington, District of Columbia

Located United States Department of Health and Human Services, Independence Avenue, between 3rd & 4th Streets, S.W., North Building, Wilbur Cohen Building, Fourth Street entrance, Washington, District of Columbia

Formerly located United States Social Security Agency, Independence Avenue, between 3rd & 4th Streets, S.W., Washington, District of Columbia

United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Independence Avenue, between 3rd & 4th Streets, S.W., North Building, Washington, District of Columbia

This building was originally designed as an office building for the Social Security Agency and later it became the home of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, now the Department of Health and Human Services. It is also known as the Wilbur Cohen Building. The four low relief panels over the entrances were designed by two sculptors working for the Section of Fine Arts under the Federal Works Agency in 1938. The SOS! survey includes a transcription of the symbol that appears above the date. The symbol is also visible in the photographs on file in the Inventories

Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985

United States General Service Administration, 1988.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, District of Columbia survey, 1993.

Michael Richman, SAAM curatorial assistant, 1967-1969.

Companion to: 66400043.

Companion to: 66400042.

Companion to: 76009447.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Control Number:

Horizon Information Portal 3.25_9382

Powered by SirsiDynix

About | © 2020 Smithsonian | Terms of Use | Privacy | Contact

SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System