Women Build Montana Murals - Helena, MT - Murals on Waymarking.com

View waymark gallery

Women Build Montana Murals - Helena, MT

in Murals

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 421984 N 5159643

Montana's first and only real capitol building, the state truly outdid itself when they built this building.

When we visited the capitol it was late in the day and everyone had gone home. Fortunately for the avid Waymarker, they had left a door unlocked - we won't say which one. We stealthily entered through the unlocked door to find ourselves alone in the building, save for a few of the cleaning staff. Avoiding the cleaners we went about our business, snapping shots to our heart's content. The capitol building may be an impressive edifice on the outside, but it is a true work of art inside. Filled with marble, tile, intricate woodwork, gold gilt, murals, stained glass, statuary and memorials, it offers a new and beautiful vista around each corner. We're very thankful that someone here was a bit forgetful but hope that it doesn't happen too often.

Two of the finer pieces of artwork are a pair of murals on the Grand Staircase Landings which depict life in Montana early in the twentieth century and late in the nineteenth century. The two murals, authorized by the 2011 legislature to honor the history of Montana women as community builders, are by Hadley Ferguson and were unveiled in 2015. They were each intended to be half of a two part mural, so we'll present them as one. This one, Women Build Montana: Community, depicts an eastern Montana town in 1924.

Women Build Montana: Community
Hadley Ferguson, oil on panel, 2015, 60" x 120"
The central scene is set in the fall of 1924 in an eastern Montana town. It marks the tenth anniversary of Montana women’s suffrage and acknowledges the year in which Native Americans—men and women—gained the right to vote with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act. The four vignettes surrounding the central image depict members of the Montana Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs handing out a scholarship, representing the many volunteer associations that supported women’s education; a woman canning fruit, which references not only the work of homemakers but also the important role of home extension agents; telephone operators, who personify clerical workers and women as labor union members; and an Indian woman teaching botany, illustrating Native women’s knowledge of the medicinal and nutritional use of Montana plants. Women Build Montana: Community is half of a two-part mural that was authorized by the 2011 legislature to honor the history of Montana women as community builders. The two panels were executed by Missoula artist Hadley Ferguson (b. 1976) and installed in 2015.
From the Montana Government

The second mural depicts Native American and homestead women trading goods.

Women Build Montana: Culture
Hadley Ferguson, oil on panel, 2015, 60" x 120"
Set in the late nineteenth century, the central scene depicts Native American and homestead women trading goods. The four vignettes surrounding the central image bridge the divide between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and depict women digging bitterroot, historically an important food source for several tribes and, since 1895, Montana’s state flower; two women stitching a state flag representing the mixing of domestic arts and formal politics; children harvesting beets, representing the Mexican-American families who contributed to the economy and community of eastern Montana; and an Indian mother and daughter beading and preparing a hide, illustrating the teaching and learning of traditional arts across generations. Women Build Montana: Culture is half of a two-part mural that was authorized by the 2011 legislature to honor the history of Montana women as community builders. The two panels were executed by Missoula artist Hadley Ferguson (b. 1976) and installed in 2015.
From the Montana Government