The Southwest Women’s Art Collection at Scottsdale’s Western Spirit Museum was a gift of the late Frances and Edward Elliott in 2020. The collection includes nearly 200 works by 25 women. Collecting these artists was Fran Elliot’s passion. The early art community in Arizona was almost entirely made up of independent women who were inspired by the breath-taking scenery and a newfound sense of freedom. They were not well known when Fran began collecting, but she frequented auctions and located the artist’s relatives, and gradually the collection grew.
For the pioneering women artists who moved to Arizona in the first several decades of the 20th century, the cultural landscape must have seemed as bleak as the hot dusty expanses they initially encountered. They would have found little in the way of cultural life, but they were resourceful, making a place for the arts in Arizona where there was none.
Betsy Fahlman, Professor of Art History at Arizona State University and a Western Spirit Trustee wrote the explanatory exhibition text for the Women of the Southwest: A Legacy of Painting exhibition. She tells us that, collectively, these artists assembled an impressive list of firsts.
Lillian Wilhelm Smith (1882-1971) was the first woman to paint the Rainbow Bridge, and she was the only woman illustrator of Zane Grey’s novels – he was her cousin-in-law. She pioneered dinnerware for the mass market, using Indigenous inspired designs for Leigh Ware potteries. Formally trained at major art schools in the East, she came to Arizona with Grey in 1913, tasked with illustrating his book, The Rainbow Trail. She never left.
The Rainbow Natural Bridge, 1915 
Monument Valley, c. 1925 
Sedona’s Deepest Snow, 1949
Born in Massachusetts, Marjorie Thomas (1885-1978) trained in portraiture at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. She moved West with her family, hoping that the warm dry weather would benefit her sickly brother. Marjorie immediately began painting the local scenery, people and animals, becoming the first to establish a studio in Scottsdale.
Noon Hour, c.1930 
Shepherd in Monument Valley, 1938
Painter Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954) was educated at Oberlin College and the Chicago Art Institute, and then travelled across Europe studying with prominent artists and exhibiting her work in major museums. In In 1911 she settled with her family in Scottsdale, immediately feeling a deep connection to the Arizona desert. She was a catalyst behind the first art show at the Arizona State Fair. Her work was collected by the Santa Fe Railway, which was the first corporate art collection in America. The company purchased more work by Evans than any other woman.
Southwest Garden Party, c.1935 
Camelback Mountain with Saguaro and Wash, 1920 
Salt River Valley 
Installation view, Jessie Benton Evans wall
Kate Thompson Cory (1861-1958) hailed from Waukeegan IL, and trained at Cooper Union and the Art Students’ League in NYC,. She travelled to Arizona in 1905 to join an artist colony, but when she got off the train she discovered that she was the lone colonist. Undaunted, she stayed for seven years, living and working among the Hopi on the First and Third Mesas. She was the first white woman accepted into the Hopi sphere. She immersed herself in their culture, learned the language, and produced hundreds of paintings and photographs that documented their ceremonies and way of life with sensitivity and nuance. Cory declined their invitation to join the tribe, settling in Prescott in 1913 where she remained for the rest of her life.
Kate Thompson Cory 
Susan Ricker Knox , Akimel O’odham/ Pima Family Life, c.1930 
Mac Schweitzer, Quail, c.1955
And there are many more of Arizona’s early women artists in the show, which is on view through August 24 2025. This is a charming show, featuring a curated selection of some four-dozen works from The Southwest Women’s Art Collection.
Hmmm … maybe it’s time to plan a little trip …
Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West
3830 N. Marshall Way, Scottsdale, AZ
480-686-9539
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