Philo Dibble's Exhibitions Inspire Springville Art Movement and Museum
Springville Art Movement
Inspired by Philo Dibble’s Exhibitions
While living in Nauvoo, Illinois, Philo Dibble (1806–95) had a dream that motivated him to create “a fine arts museum or gallery to be established for the benefit of
the Mormon people.”[i] Dibble commissioned artwork of early scenes in Church history; then he hosted several exhibitions. He later moved to Winter Quarters (today's Council Bluffs, Iowa) and displayed art in the Log Tabernacle. After Elder Wilford Woodruff deeply praised the exhibit on April 7, 1848, he expressed a desire that the Saints would “fit-up a gallery
in Zion.”[ii]
Dibble moved west to Utah and then, during the Utah War in early 1858, he moved to the small town of Springville.[iii] For the next forty years,
He held several
exhibitions in Utah County, particularly in his home which was, in essence, the
first Springville Gallery of Art. Through . . . panoramic painting of religious
and historical subjects [by Robert Campbell and William W. Major], his
exhibitions of art and death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, as well as
magic-lantern slide presentations of famous paintings, Dibble created a climate
of interest for the visual fine arts in Springville within eight years of the
founding of the City.
He held several exhibitions in Utah County, particularly in his home which was, in essence, the first Springville Gallery of Art. Through . . . panoramic painting of religious and historical subjects [by Robert Campbell and William W. Major], his exhibitions of art and death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, as well as magic-lantern slide presentations of famous paintings, Dibble created a climate of interest for the visual fine arts in Springville within eight years of the founding of the City.
Though the dreams of “Father Dibble,” as he was called, for an art gallery were not realized for another fifty-five years, he continually pressed the idea in Springville until he died in 1895. According to a grand-niece, once during his rounds through town, Dibble plunged his sacred “Cane of the Martyrdom”[iv] into the ground at the corner of First East and Fourth South and said, “The school gallery shall be here.”[v] It is not known the precise date of the ‘dedication’ of this plot of land and prophecy of an art gallery, but it was certainly one of the earliest reckonings of an art museum in Utah. It was Dibble's continual talk . . . about an art gallery that planted the seed in the community’s consciousness. This message would find fertile ground with his young artist friends, Cyrus E. Dallin and John Hafen, and it would eventually lead to the genesis of the Springville Art Movement by the end of the nineteenth century.
[i]
Dr.
William C. Seifrit, notes, 1989, Marriott Library, University of Utah. Seifrit
was an editor of the Wilford Woodruff journals and noted art historian of Utah
art.
[i]
Dr.
William C. Seifrit, notes, 1989, Marriott Library, University of Utah. Seifrit
was an editor of the Wilford Woodruff journals and noted art historian of Utah
art.
[iii]
Because
of the approaching U.S. Army, in the spring of 1858 Brigham Young called the
people of Salt Lake County and those in the settlements in the northern part of
the Territory to move south of Point of the Mountain. The Dibbles lived in
Bountiful and they moved as refugees to Springville as instructed in what
became known as “The Move” in Utah history. During the summer Springville’s
population swelled to 250 people. See Mary Jane Chase Finley, A History
of Springville (1988), 32.
[iv]
This was a walking cane made from Joseph Smith, Jr.'s first oak coffin
with a lock of the Prophet’s hair in the handle. It is now in the LDS Church
Museum of History and Art in Salt Lake City.
[v] Cassette tape (1970s) of Rell
Francis’ interview of Dibble’s great-grand-niece in San Francisco, SMA Library,
given by Swanson to Dibble family representative in 2010. The grand-niece may
have used the word “school” because in her time there was a school on that
general location (First Ward schoolhouse on 300 south 200 east. But even in
using this term “school,” if he used it, he would be prescient because it would
be called the Springville High School Art Gallery.
Details of Art Exhibited by Philo Dibble
Excerpt
from William Warner Major: Utah
Pioneer Artist, by Jill C. Major
1. Mural of
scenes of Church History (Spring–Fall 1845)
History:
Robert Campbell was commissioned by Philo Dibble to do the drawings for two
murals. William W. Major and others helped to paint them.
a) The
murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith while under arrest. (Spring 1845)
The Diary
of Hosea Stout records this entry on March 7, 1845, Friday: “In the morning
went to Turley’s to get a pistol repaired from thence went with Br. Scovil to
the Mansion then to see Br Major who was painting the scenery of the murder of
Joseph & Hyrum at Carthage.” The Journal History records, “4
April 1845, Brother Wm. W. Major exhibited a painting of the assassination of
Joseph and Hyrum Smith by the mob at Carthage.” Just before she left Nauvoo for
Winter Quarters, Patty Bartlett Sessions penned in her “day book” on 11
February 1846: “...in the evening went to the [Seventies] Hall to see
the scenery of the massacre of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.”
b) Joseph
addressing the Nauvoo Legion three days prior to his imprisonment in Carthage
jail (September 1845).
History:
Concerning the Nauvoo Legion Painting, Hosea Stout wrote on September 8th 1845,
“...at 5 met some officers of the Legion at Coolidges’ to see about the
painting of the scenery of Joseph the Prophet addressing the Nauvoo Legion on
the 18th day of June 1844. The officers were dissatisfied with the plan for Br.
Dibble was about to put in the likeness of officers who were not present and
also some men who were to be put in conspicuous places on the scenery who were
not officers and moreover betrayed the prophet and patriarch to death and also
other men who had disgraced their calling as officers to all of these things I
made objections and declared I would not be seen portrayed in a group of such
men for it would be a disgrace to my children and roughly handled the
characters of certain characters in our midst which after the matter was laid
over for future consideration.”
Description
of both paintings: painted on canvas, 128 square-feet. A letter from Dibble
makes it sound like it is 128 feet long, but according to Glen Leonard, “...it
is 128 feet square. This is proven by the watercolor study of Joseph addressing
the Nauvoo Legion which has pencil hatch marks around the edge which are in
proportions that would create a 128 square-foot painting if enlarged.”
Example of Exhibition in Springville, May 24, 1862
Except from “Philo Dibble’s Reminiscences of Early Church History and the Prophet Joseph Smith,” comp. Marilyn and Celia Smith (n.p., 1995)
“Exhibition. On the 24th (May, 1862) ultimate, Mr. Philo Dibble favored the citizens of Springville with an entertaining exhibition of oil paintings, representing the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Prophet’s last address to the Nauvoo Legion, and the fight of the Mormon Battalion with the bulls. He also exhibited the busts of the two martyrs, as taken after their death. The explanatory lecture was historical and instructive, as we are informed.
“During the winter our fellow townsman, Philo Dibble, gave a number of illustrated lectures with his magic lantern. These were held in the White Meeting House which was dimly lighted with kerosene lamps. A heavy curtain was hung across the stage on which he showed slides of painted canvases depicting church history. Among these was an illustration of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage jail. The most unique attraction was pictures of the trip of the Mormon Battalion to Mexico, among which was one showing the stampeding of [bulls] when they attacked the long train of wagons. The spectators were held breathless as he showed the narrow escape of Levi Hancock as he was attacked by a bull. . . . A magic lantern is a optical instrument by means of which a magnified image of a picture on glass is thrown upon a white screen or wall in a darkened room.”
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