Harry Leith-Ross
American (1886-1973)
The Big Spring Road
Oil on board
TL1.2003.2
In the Deep Woods
Oil on board
TL1.2003.4
Tractor and Saw
TL1.2003.7
From left to right:
Pealing the Logs
The Saw
CCC Workers
Oil on board
TL1.2003.8-10
In 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created as part of the New Deal Legislation to relieve unemployment and conduct natural resource conservation projects. Connecticut had twenty-one camps from 1933 to 1942. In 2003 this group of paintings by Harry Leith-Ross was rediscovered in the Pleasant Valley field office in Barkhamsted.
Leith-Ross was commissioned to paint the oil on board paintings in 1934 as part of a Civil Works Administration project. The paintings depict the work of the CCC, as well as, landscapes of the Paugnut State Forest in Torrington and People’s Forest in Barkhamsted. The chestnut frames were hand carved to compliment the works by fellow Civil Works Administration craftsman Richard Perry, who was the son of the first Ranger in the People’s Forest in Barkhamsted.
Everything from the subject, medium, and frame fulfil the mission of the CCC to provide employment to young men through conservation and development of natural resources.