Railroad Retirement

In 1935, Congress passed the Railroad Retirement Act, providing unemployment insurance and pensions for America’s railway workers, spouses, and survivors. The agency responsible for overseeing the distribution of benefits, the Railroad Retirement Board, was planned to be located here, in the Railroad Retirement Board Building, one of the first federal buildings constructed south of the National Mall. During construction, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Fine Arts commissioned Robert Kittredge to carve two bas relief panels to adorn the main entrances on C Street and to interpret the work of the agency housed within. However, the Railroad Retirement Board never occupied the space, because it was given to the War Department in preparation for World War II. In 1972, the building was renamed the Mary E. Switzer Federal Building after a lauded civil servant, making it the first federal office building named after a woman.

Railroad Retirement depicts the benefits of the new pension system for the retired railway employee. A retiree is shown gardening with his wife, secure in his later years thanks to his work for the railroad—a debt acknowledged by a wave to the steam engine in the distance. Kittredge was born in Cairo, Egypt, and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany, before moving to the United States. A well-known artist, Kittredge was also an early western conservationist and noted marine navigator.