Abstract

As the Church entered into a period of mourning, confusion, and uncertainty following the 1844 imprisonment of religious leaders Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail in Illinois, artists turned to their canvases to grapple with and depict these events. Ashlee Whitaker calls attention to this shift in Mormon art, noting how Latter-day Saint artists painted portraits, landscapes, and commemorative scenes to promote Church authorities and “covenant kinship” as the organization experienced both a leadership crisis and abrupt relocation. Whitaker’s analysis, however, focuses almost completely on paintings done on canvas by men in America such as Danquart Weggeland, C.C.A. Christensen, and George Ottinger; the only exception to this male-dominant selection of artists is Sarah Ann Burbage Long, who painted the group portrait Brigham Young and His Friends. Though these artists and their artworks have been recognized for their significant contributions to early Latter-day Saint art history, they were not the only ones to make the Church’s history the subject of their art. Using needle and thread, Latter-day Saint young women in Great Britain such as Ann Eckford, Mary Ann Broomhead, and Emma Taylor created embroidered works that memorialize the people and landmarks of their faith. These works continue the Anglo-American tradition of crafting embroidered samplers but adapt and modify their patterns to convey their Latter-day Saint identities. Through their sampler work, these girls upheld Church leadership, celebrated Latter-day Saint accomplishments, and marked themselves as members of a religious community.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Comparative Arts and Letters

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/