Lucile Cannon Bennion: Her Sacred Art That Taught a Generation (1958)

Lucile Cannon Bennion (1891-1966), wife of Glynn Sharp Bennion, was a painter and historian who created illuminated maps portraying the great explorers and pioneers of faith—Abraham, the Vikings, Columbus, and the trappers and fur traders of the West. Her tempera painting 'Abraham: Friend of God, Prince among Early Peoples' (1958), showing Abraham standing above the curve of the earth with angels bowing toward him from ranks on either side, was reproduced by the Church for use in Sunday School lessons and is held in the LDS Church Library in Salt Lake City. She believed that writing or drawing history brought a useful, even sacred, object into existence, and that to illuminate the lives of those who followed the exploring and pioneering impulses was to participate with God in the work of creation. Her sacred art is a faith-promoting witness that the Lord inspires faithful women to make the stories of the ancient prophets and the pioneers visible to a whole generation of the Saints.