Biography

David Milton Granahan was born in Litchfield, MN and spent the first 30 years of his life in Minnesota. He graduated from the St. Cloud Technical High School in 1928 and attended the Minneapolis School of Art. In 1932 he received the Ethel Morrison Van Derlip Traveling Scholarship for study abroad. Two years later he married Lolita Katherine Wadman, a fellow student at the Minneapolis School of Art and another recipient of the Van Derlip Scholarship. The couple opened a studio in Minneapolis. Both artists exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Minnesota State Fair in the early 1930s.

Granahan painted three murals in 1934 for the Gateway Center Building in Minneapolis, now demolished. His Hopkins, MN Post Office mural "The Cultivation of Raspberries" (1936) was also destroyed. Several other murals of his survive: "The Founding of Rochester" (1937) for the Rochester, MN Post Office, "Construction" (1937) for the Saint Cloud, MN Post Office, and "Winter Trading Camp" (1939) for the Moorhead, MN High School. Granahan's wife Lolita assisted him on the Saint Cloud mural, while Henry Holmstrom assisted on the murals for Hopkins and Rochester. Holmstrom painted his own mural for the Post Office in Marshall, MN. David and Lolita jointly illustrated a number of books in the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1939 Granahan was hired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). After two years in Kentucky he and his wife moved to Washington, DC. His work included the design of traveling exhibits to promote U.S. agricultural products around the world and the production of USDA posters. He directed the graphic arts program at the USDA Graduate School and taught night classes there for 20 years. During World War II he worked as a civilian employee for the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics.

In 1963, on his own initiative, Granahan created a set of watercolors "A Witness to History" to commemorate the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Society of Federal Artists and Designers named him art director of the year in 1969. And in 1975 and 1976 he served as president of the Federal Design Council. He retired from the USDA in 1976. Outside of his work, he served on town councils for Greenbelt, MD and University Park, MD. He died in Hyattsville, MD in 1991.

Critical Analysis

Of the various murals that David Granahan painted, his Saint Cloud mural "Construction" stands out. His Hopkins mural "The Cultivation of Raspberries" and his Rochester mural "The Founding of Rochester" are pleasant but rather static compositions. And, while "Construction" presents a worksite frozen in a particular moment, the monumentality of the composition awes the viewer and invites a long and detailed look at the work. The veracity of Granahan's portrayal of granite mining, cutting and polishing is underscored by the fact that it was used to illustrate a poster for the course "Work and Environmental Respiratory Disease and Updates in Occupational and Environmental Medicine" put on by the University of California at San Francisco College of Medicine in 2024. Of course Granahan was probably not thinking of respiratory hazards when he created his Saint Cloud mural (although he may have subjected himself to such hazards doing research on the subject), but his mural depicts the workplace with such specificity that a viewer can almost sense the grit of the cut and polished stone as the workmen go about their demanding tasks.

Granahan's earlier easel painting "Night Shifts" (1934) shows a similar sensitivity to the industrial environment. And Granahan himself regarded "Construction" as his greatest work.

Murals

• Rochester, Minnesota - Olmsted County Historical Society: The Founding of Rochester
• Saint Cloud, Minnesota - Stearns History Museum: Construction

References

1. Kathleen McCarney, Art for a People: An Iconographic and Cultural Study of Mural Painting in Minnesota's New Deal Art Programs (2004). College of Saint Benedict, Saint John's University
2. Artist Gets CWA Project in Gateway, the Minnesota Star Tribune January 5 (1934).
3. Emma Dumain, Artistic Account of a Historic Day, Roll Call July 17 (2007).
4. SCblogger, Becoming Iowa: Upper Mississippi: A Wilderness Saga by Walter Havighurst, The Library October 7 (2021).
5. David M. Granahan (The Washington Post).
6. Granahan, Lolita Wadman, 1908-1991 (Archives Space).
7. Lolita W. Granahan (The Washington Post).
8. Kevin Wallevand, Mural discovered at old Moorhead High School, InForum July 12 (2018).
9. Gail Lipe, A piece of Hopkins history comes home, Twin Cities Pioneer Press February 9 (2025).
10. Ann Wessel (St. Cloud Times), Replica WPA mural highlights restored St. Cloud fed building, MPR News March 25 Art & Culture (2012). Original mural had dimensions 9'6"x9"6", or an aspect ratio of 1.00:1.
11. WPA Federal Art Project, 1935–1943 (MNopedia).