1 Suffrage Mural – Aunt “Pliny”
This mural tells the story of Paulina Phelps Lyman, also known to her friends and family as “Aunt Paulina” or “Aunt Pliny”, a turn-of-the-century suffragist, mother, seamstress, and midwife who lived in Parowan, Utah, about 20 miles north of Cedar City. She was the only medical professional in the area for a whole generation and delivered over 1000 babies while serving the women and families in this valley!
In the mural, Lyman is depicted carrying her black doctor’s bag, illustrating a popular family folk tale from early Parowan. In those days, no one ever explained a baby’s arrival by invoking the story of an aerial delivery by a stork. Instead, newborns arrived in their new home in Aunt Paulina’s ever present black bag.
At a suffrage meeting in 1895, “Aunt Pauline” said she couldn’t remember “when she was first converted to “woman’s rights” but she thought women “could as well go to the polls to vote as to the Post Office.”
2 Suffrage Mural – Better Days 2020 Illustration Project
At a suffrage meeting in 1895, Paulina Lyman is reported saying, “she couldn’t remember “when she was first converted to “woman’s rights” but she thought women “could as well go to the polls to vote as to the Post Office.”
This painting of Paulina Lyman is only one of fifty portraits by artist Brooke Smart commissioned by Better Days 2020, commemorating important women in Utah history. Many of her paintings, like this one, pay tribute to key figures in Utah’s pioneering Suffrage Movement in the late 19th century. Other women highlighted in her work for Better Days 2020 include suffragist Emmeline B. Wells, Mignon Barker Richmond the first African American woman to earn a bachelor’s degree in Utah and Geneal Anderson an important and influential leader of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
3 Suffrage Mural – The Artist: Brooke Smart
Brooke Smart is a successful painter and illustrator based in Bluffdale, Utah. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Illustration from Brigham Young University, she developed a career as both a painter and illustrator working primarily in oils and watercolors. She is a popular illustrator of children’s books and has worked with many prominent publishers including Random House Kids, Penguin Workshop, Little Brown and The New York Times.
Speaking of the inspiration for this work the artist said, “I pictured her walking through her incredible life, ready for whatever the day held for her. I wanted to tell her story in petroglyphs because of the amazing petroglyphs that can be found in [the valley near] Parowan.”
If you would like to see a facsimile and learn more about the Native American rock writing created by the Paiute tribe that helped to inspire this work please visit exhibit #2 on this tour in front of the Cedar City Library in the Park.