One, that public murals sponsored by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal can be effectively used as resources for teaching and learning. Communities all around the country have these historic murals and it is our belief that they can be used by students to better understand the historic themes they represent, the New Deal Art programs, and the relationships between history and the arts.

Two, because murals are essentially painted stories, students can learn to identify, extract, and re-tell the story in digital format – a Digital Story. This process can effectively connect learning experiences in history, the arts, ELA, and technology. The process is constructivist and it involves higher order thinking skills in all these areas. The product is a synthesis of the content in a multimedia format.

The subject of this digital story is “The Underground Railroad”, a fresco painted in 1940 by James Michael Newell for the newly constructed U.S. Post Office in Dolgeville, New York. Newell was commissioned by the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts to produce a mural that represented an important local historical theme. His research quickly led him to the 1850’s and Zenas Brockett, a local abolitionist and a very active “conductor” on the “Underground Railroad” in the Mohawk Valley.

Matt Fidler’s 11th grade United States History class at Rome Free Academy in Rome, New York, used this mural and its rich anti-slavery theme to create the Dolgeville Digital Story – one element of their multi-faceted study of the Anti-Slavery movement and the New Deal Era.