RFD America

Artist Harold David Landes (American, 1898-1992)

Date1938

Mediumwatercolor on paper

Dimensionsimage: 14 1/2 × 16 3/4 in. (36.8 × 42.5 cm)
frame: 27 3/4 × 30 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (70.5 × 76.8 × 3.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of the artist

Exhibition History"Familiar Surroundings," KIA Long Gallery (Dec. 18, 2010 - Apr. 10, 2011).Label TextHarold Landes, an original member of the Paint and Chisel Club—a group that eventually founded the KIA—depicts an idealized rural landscape of rolling green fields, bright farm buildings, and grazing horses. The painting’s title, RFD America, refers to Rural Free Delivery, an 1890s program that brought postal services to rural areas and became permanent in 1902. The program ensured that Americans in rural areas no longer had to travel long distances to collect their mail, connecting these communities to news, commerce, and one another. In the composition’s foreground, Landes prominently features the mailbox, emphasizing its importance as a source of communication and national connection. RFD America celebrates the agricultural landscape and expanding infrastructure that linked rural Americans to the rest of the nation. [Label Text: For the People: America at 250 Exhibition, June 27 - October 4, 2026]

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