Helen Henderson Chain and Other Overlooked Women Artists Featured in Wyoming Exhibition
Right now, there's an exhibition called "Women Artists of the American West: Colorado and Utah: 1885–1935" at History Jackson Hole in Jackson, Wyoming. It's curated by Lucia Pesapane and Camille Morineau from AWARE, featuring seven talented artists like Laura Gilpin, Anne Gregory Van Briggle, Elisabeth Spalding, and Helen Henderson Chain. Speaking of Chain, she was quite remarkable—she moved to Denver in 1871 and became the first non-Indigenous woman to climb Mount of the Holy Cross in 1877. She also started the first art school in Denver before her untimely death in 1892. The exhibit, which runs until 2026, showcases themes of natural beauty and humor, reflecting how these artists were often overlooked, as Morineau noted.
Key facts
- Helen Henderson Chain was the first non-Indigenous woman to summit Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado in 1877.
- The exhibition "Women Artists of the American West: Colorado and Utah: 1885–1935" is on view at History Jackson Hole in Jackson, Wyoming.
- Curators Lucia Pesapane and Camille Morineau are co-founders of the Paris nonprofit AWARE.
- Chain exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1882 with paintings of New Mexico pueblos.
- Chain drowned in 1892 during a typhoon in the South China Sea while traveling from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
- Photographer Lora Webb Nichols took over 24,000 photographs of life in small-town Wyoming.
- Mabel Pearl Frazer taught at the University of Utah for 33 years starting in 1920.
- Wyoming granted women the vote in 1869, decades before the 19th Amendment.
Entities
Artists
- Helen Henderson Chain
- Evelyn Cameron
- Fra Dana
- Lora Webb Nichols
- Elisabeth Spalding
- Anne Gregory Van Briggle
- Laura Gilpin
- George Inness
- Childe Hassam
- Mabel Pearl Frazer
- Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
- Artus Van Briggle
Institutions
- History Jackson Hole
- AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions)
- National Academy of Design
- Princeton University Library
- Denver Public Library Special Collections
- Cooper Union
- Art Students League
- Utah Museum of Fine Arts
- Brigham Young University Museum of Art
- Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives
- Amon Carter Museum of American Art
- University of Utah
- Denver Art Museum
- Rocky Mountain Studio
- Le Brun Art Club
- Van Briggle Pottery
- Utah Museum of Art
Locations
- Jackson
- Wyoming
- Colorado
- Utah
- Paris
- France
- Montana
- Rocky Mountains
- Mount of the Holy Cross
- Denver
- Indiana
- New York
- New Mexico
- Shanghai
- Hong Kong
- South China Sea
- Europe
- Philadelphia
- St. Louis
- Fort Worth
- Texas