Alice Merrill Horne

Women in Public Service » Politics

Utah legislator and founder of the Utah Arts Council and the State Art Collection. Horne spent her early years as an educator and artist before being elected in 1898 as a member of the Utah House of Representatives –- only the second woman to serve in that body. As a legislator, she introduced and shepherded through a landmark bill to create a state art institute, the first of its kind in the United States. Horne served for fourteen years on the board of the Relief Society of the LDS Church and as chair of the Society’s art committee where she prepared lessons on art appreciation, landscape study, and architecture. Over the course of her career, Horne gave two addresses to Congress, represented the Relief Society and the United States at the International Congress of Women in Berlin, Germany, and served as secretary, historian, and second president of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.
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