Seasons of the Year and Holidays

Twenty-two courtroom doors at the Elijah Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., feature an elaborate series of small relief sculptures completed by Edwin C. Rust in 1952. Each set of doors includes 26 sand-cast bronzes symbolizing the four seasons and ten civic and religious holidays. Each design repeats twice, except for Easter and Yom Kippur, which appear only once in the sequence. Most of the panels include familiar holidays, such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The remaining panels celebrate holidays that have changed in popularity and meaning over time. Washington’s Birthday is now also called President’s Day, Armistice Day is now recognized as Veterans Day, and All Souls’ Day has been superseded by All Saints’ Day and Halloween.

Each of Rust’s bronze bas-reliefs, or shallow-depth castings, are framed within oak veneer doors that are finished in a blond oak stain. The artist’s figures are thickly modeled and occupy the majority of his compositions. In some cases, the commemorated season or event is clearly evident, but in other instances Rust’s work offers a spare allusion to the holiday using simplified imagery.