Alfred D. Crimi (1900–94) was born in eastern Sicily and moved to New York City in 1910. He attended public school in East Harlem's Little Italy, and returned to Europe in 1929 to study fresco painting in Rome. He was one of the most experienced artists in the mural division when he was hired by the WPA for the Harlem Hospital murals project. He also worked for the Public Works of Art Project in Key West, Florida.

While working at Harlem Hospital, Crimi entered a national competition sponsored by the Section of Painting and Sculpture, which was established under the Department of the Treasury to employ artists on a contractual basis instead of under the WPA rolls. He won a commission for two fresco panels in the Post Office Department Building. His other major works include frescoes at Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York City and the Polish Roman Catholic Church in Bayonne, New Jersey. He had 12 solo exhibitions and he participated in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Academy of Arts and Letters, the Chicago Art Institute, and in Paris, Rome, Bologna, and Trieste.