Anne Poor (1918-2002)

Anne Poor created a mural for the Depew Post Office in 1941, titled Beginning of the Day, and measuring 5 feet x 12 feet. Her stepfather Henry Varnum Poor helped her install it. He was one of Burchfield's colleagues in the Rehn Gallery. (See Marlene Park & Gerald E. Markowitz, New Deal for Art: The Government Art Projects of the 1930s with Examples from New York City & State.  (Hamilton, NY: Gallery Association of New York State, Inc., 1977)

Anne Poor came from an artistic family: her father was a painter and mother was a novelist. Her stepfather was Henry Varnum Poor, who she assisted on murals for the Departments of Justice and the Interior in Washington, DC. She also worked on a number of commissions for the WPA during the Depression and throughout the Second World War. During the War, Anne enlisted as a member of the WACs, the Women’s Army Corp. She did a series of drawings of the evacuated wounded in the South Pacific. The duration of the war, she served as one of only two female artist in the Army Air Corps allowed to artistically document the war. She would continue to do independent commissions for the WPA. 

Anne served as one of the directors at Skowhegan School, started by her stepfather, Henry Varnum Poor, she also taught there until 1967. She served as a trustee from 1961 to 1983. In 1987, Anne was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She was also a member of the National Academy of Design. Her work can be found in the collections of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. (Barbara Galazzo, Rockland County Arts Council, 2022, https://artswestchester.org/rockland-county-arts-council-the-women-of-south-mountain-road/)