- State House Art Commission
Notable Women of Boston by Ellen Lanyon, 1980
Loan to the State House Art Commission by the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts and Humanities, Simmons University, Boston.
Commissioned by Workingmen’s Cooperative Bank of Boston in 1980 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of its founding. The mural honors nine women who were trailblazers in their respective fields and important contributors to American – particularly Boston – culture.
- Anne Hutchinson
- Phillis Wheatley
- Sister Ann Alexis
- Lucy Stone
- Mary Baker Eddy
- Ellen Richards
- Mary Morton Kehew
- Anne Sullivan
- Melnea Cass
Chicago artist Ellen Lanyon (1926-2013) studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, and the Courtauld Art Institute, London. She received over seventy exhibitions of her art and is included in major museum collections across the United States. Simmons University acquired the two panel “diptych” painting from the Workingmen’s Cooperative in 1985 and has, until recently, installed it in their central library which is now under renovation. (Three of the subjects have connections to Simmons.) Rather than store the artwork for nearly three years, the State House Art Commission was asked to accept the mural on loan so that it could remain on public view. The seven feet tall by thirteen feet wide mural has been placed on the wall at the top of the Grand Staircase, outside the House Gallery, until December 2025.
For additional information please visit the Simmons University website:
https://www.simmons.edu/news/notable-women-boston-mural-moves-simmons-state-house
https://www.simmons.edu/news/feminist-art-with-simmons-connection