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Hoover and the Flood
On May 6th, 1940, LIFE released "Hoover and the Flood: A painting for LIFE", by John Steuart Curry. This editorial was the sixth of eight commissioned installments for LIFE magazine's American History Series that featured modern American history paintings. John Steuart Curry's Hoover and the Flood painting is an oil on panel and measures 37½ by 63 inches. The painting is currently located at The Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA. Curry's LIFE Magazine commission was solely for the reproduction rights to the painting. Since the magazine never intended to purchase Curry's painting there has been little success finding documentation regarding the financial aspects of the commission.

Curry's "Hoover and the Flood" was created to celebrate the humanitarian and relief efforts of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover before his presidential election in 1928. Curry's painting demonstrates many of the major scenes and events that were associated during the Mississippi Flood of 1927 such as flood waters, National Guardsmen, the Red Cross relief, refugees, stranded farm animals, praying African Americans and a Mississippi riverboat. John Steuart Curry's work often supported the mentalities of the African American population that were common during the first half of the twentieth century. "Hoover and the Flood" references several of Curry's previous artworks. His use of a centrally positioned African American male figure appears in other works including Freeing of the Slaves (1936), The Fugitive (1924-1936), and Mississippi Noah (1932).