Church History Museum

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long been a major patron of artwork of Minerva Teichert; starting in the 1930s. Due to the efforts of her friend and agent Alice Merrill Horne, Teichert’s works have been displayed in Latter-day Saint meetinghouses and in other church buildings, such as the Lion House, tabernacles and the Manti Temple world room.

The Church has contemplated a Minerva Teichert exhibit for a long time, but the real work began four or five years ago. The exhibit was delayed due to the onset of the pandemic, said Riley Lorimer, the director of the Church History Museum

The exhibition is organized around Teichert’s account of falling ill during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Feeling close to death, Teichert remembered the art training she had recently completed and prayed.

“I promised the Lord if I’d finished my work and He’d give me some more, I’d gladly do it,” she said later. “With this covenant in my heart, I began to live.”