By the beginning of Great Depression, Eustace Ziegler (1881-1969) was an established and successful artist. In 1933, the US government launched an ambitious program of cultural aid including direct aid for artist hard hit by the depression. Ziegler had long advocated government funding for the arts and, in a show of support for the program, he donated this painting to the first New Deal Art Program, Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), for placement in a non-profit agency. Mt. Index (also known as Near Index) was selected for exhibition in a local show of PWAP. A local jury of art experts and critics selected Mt. Index and ten other works by local artists (inlcuding Ebba Rapp, Morris Graves, Jacob Elshin, and Ernest Norling) to represent art of Washington State at a national exhibition of PWAP at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. The exhibit was the first national exhibition of federally funded art, and one of the most important art exhibitions in American History. He was not immune to the economic hardships of the Great Depression as this painting clearly shows. Mt. Index was painted on the back of another painting, showing that Ziegler was economically minded enough to save materials.