Essay
When Augusta Joyce Crocheron created this poster in 1883, she had a couple of ideas in mind. She wanted to highlight these women for who they were to her at a time when mainstream America had different ideas.
The Mormon Problem
Crocheran published the book and the poster at a time of intense persecution against Mormons in Utah, or Deseret, because of their practice of plural marriage. While the LDS Church viewed polygamy as a restoration of an ancient patriarchal order as found in the Old Testament, crucial to their concept of salvation, most nineteenth-century Protestant Americans believed polygamy to be a heinous system that encouraged lusty and unfaithful husbands and jealous and oppressed wives. Anti-Mormon literature portrayed Mormon women as weak and crude, oppressed and ignorant. Crocheron depicts the women as saints with great intelligence, talent, and social contribution in an effort to show the rest of the world that Mormon women are refined, intelligent, and contribute in very positive ways to their communities.
Victorian Art
Crocheron used a typical Victorian art form: the poster. Careful examination reveals the opinions and values of this cultural background. Careful study of this piece of material culture reveals the tradition, the nature of the women’s community in Salt Lake City, and the time period. (American, West, Utah, Mormon). This really is a time-specific, culture-specific piece. The way the women are presented and the objects drawn around them illustrates personality as well as culture. For example, the use of flowers communicates refinement. The Edenic garden is a place where the respectable Victorian woman can bring refinement and gentility into her home and community, connecting to nature as well as Mother Eve.
The Utah Pioneer Experience
These women arrived in Utah as pioneers, most of them having crossed the plains in wagons or handcarts, beginning in 1847. When the transcontinental railroad connected in northern Utah in 1870, more people arrived by rail. Living on the frontier required the early settlers in Utah to be resourceful--to use what was around them. This poster illustrates the way these women used what they found in Utah to build up a beautiful, cultured environment. Many of the flowers are native to Utah, and showcase the way the women have fashioned beauty from their harsh frontier environment.
Latter-day Saint Religion as Art
Driven from Illinois into the desert wilderness of Utah, the Mormon pioneers were well aware of the biblical overtones of their exodus and settlement. Church leaders quickly appropriated the Judeo-Christian concept of wilderness as a symbolic device. The formidable Great Basin offered the Mormon people sanctuary from a persecuting society and became the place where the faithful would be tested. Crocheron included several religious images in her work. The crown overhead, with the rays of light and the extended hands illustrates how these women considered themselves led by divine sources. Books of scripture and theology are included around many of the women, demonstrating their intelligence and knowledge of their church doctrine.
