In 1937 Sternberg painted his first post office mural , '' Carrying the Mail '' in Sellersville , Pennsylvania . The mural was commissioned by the former United States Department of the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture , later known as the Section of Fine Arts . Sternberg traveled to Chicago where he studied the city 's history , architecture , industry , and workers which resulted in his mural '' Chicago : Epoch of a Great City '' , for the Lakeview post office in Chicago . It depicts the history of the city from its first settlement of Fort Dearborn to the Great Fire to the life in the stock yards and the steel mills . In 1906 Upton Sinclair 's novel , '' The Jungle '' , had graphically described life for workers in Chicago 's stockyards and steel mills and Sternberg strived to captured their struggle . In June 2001 a non-profit community organization , Friends of the Lakeview Post Office , was founded to facilitate a restoration of the mural . Parma Conservation of Chicago completed the work in 2003
Great Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Harry Sternberg