Utah Women Making History Traveling Art Display

“Utah Women Making History,” which includes Utah artist Brooke Smart’s illustrations of Utah women (and a few men) who worked throughout the 20th century to advocate for women and advance their communities, opened on January 11, 2023 at the Kamas Valley Branch in the Library *auditorium. 

These illustrations were commissioned by Better Days 2020, a nonprofit dedicated to popularizing Utah women’s history and spearheading Utah’s statewide celebrations of these significant anniversaries. "Utah Women Making History" will be on display until Feburary 14, 2023.

The year 2020 marked three significant women’s rights anniversaries. Utahns commemorated the 150th anniversary of Utah women’s first votes, when 25 women cast ballots in the Salt Lake City election on February 14, 1870 and became the first American women to vote under an equal suffrage law. The 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, that extended voting rights to women in the United States when it was ratified on August 26, 1920, and the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, that provided needed protections for minority voting rights on August 6, 1965 also happened in 2020.

Utah women were at the forefront of the national suffrage movement in many ways, but the fight for women’s voting rights was just one step in a long list of rights that have had to be gained. Even before the passage of the 19th Amendment, and especially since, Utah women have worked to better their communities in the arts, business, education, law, medicine, the military, music, writing, politics, religious and community organizations, science, sports, and more.

Utah Arts & Museums’ Traveling Exhibit Program is a statewide outreach program that provides schools, museums, libraries, and community galleries with the opportunity to bring curated exhibitions to their community. This program is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

*If the doors to the auditorium are locked, please see a librarian during our business hours to gain access to the display.