The mural was commissioned in 1939 by the Section of Fine Arts, Federal Works Agency, Public Building Administration as part of a nationwide Roosevelt era program to “secure murals and sculptures of distinguished quality appropriate to the embellishment of federal buildings.” About 1 percent of the total cost limit of the building was to be reserved for such decorations. Commissions were offered through juried competitions in which the intrinsic quality of the painting or sculpture and its relationship to its setting was judged.