Untitled, Orville Fisher’s mural from 1957 featuring the figure of Mercury, god of messages and glad tidings, inside the post office building at 349 West Georgia Street, by the Homer Street entrance. Technically, this might not actually be depicting Vancouver, but due to the fact that the artist was a Vancouverite and this mural is one of the city’s great under-appreciated murals, I am including it without any hesitation.
The mural is captioned: “Transporting the Royal Mails by land, sea, and air in British Columbia” and is viewable from the street through a double set of glass doors. Also mentioned in John Steil’s book Public Art in Vancouver: Angels Among Lions: “The mural shows the evolution of mail delivery, from stagecoaches to ships, from biplanes to helicopters (there is a landing pad on the roof!).” Orville Fisher studied at the Vancouver School of Art, painted murals with E J Hughes and Paul Goranson for the Golden Gate International Exposition, as well as a lost series of murals at First United Church in Chinatown. He went on to become a respected WWII documentary artist, and later he taught at the Vancouver School of Art.
