Painting: “Admission of Colorado to the Union” by Joseph Hitchins, 1884. Courtesy History Colorado.
I noticed this enthralling painting by Joseph Hitchins in yesterday’s somewhat depressing editorial by Daily Post editor Bill Hudson. The Colorado Territory was admitted to the Union as the nation’s 38th state in 1876, and Mr. Hitchins created an allegorical illustration of the event a few years later, in 1884.
For some reason, it brought to mind the surrealistic paintings of Salvador Dali. But then, I’ve always had an overactive imagination.
A few details worth mentioning. In the distance on the right, we can barely make out the federal Capitol Building, floating in the air like a far off heavenly kingdom. To the left, ominous mountain peaks ascend into the clouds.
Center stage, we see a stone archway bearing the words, “State of Colorado”, decorated with a tiny farmer on the left and an equally minuscule miner on the right.
But it’s the gathered celebrants below the archway that draw us fully into the artist’s fantastical dreamworld.
The gathering is dominated by about two dozen men who appear to be dressed in business attire. We might guess these are some of the businessmen and politicians elected to attend the third Colorado Constitutional Convention, and who met in Denver in December 1875 to begin writing the Colorado Constitution.
There are, however, two women in the scene, and almost all eyes are directed at the redheaded gal wearing what looks suspiciously like a white wedding gown. Her head is slightly bowed, as if she’s looking down to make sure she doesn’t accidentally step in anything. This is, after all, Colorado. Even then, it was a vast cow pasture.
An older man with a white beard holds the bride’s left hand. In his other hand, he holds what looks like a rolled-up document. Looks like he might be wearing a pocket watch.
The other lady wears a red velvet dress and a serious expression, and she’s holding a shield decorated with the Stars and Stripes. Possibly, this gal represents the United States.
Everyone looks pretty somber. We’re obviously viewing a ceremony of some type.
But what type of ceremony?
Alternative One: The man with the white beard is a preacher — perhaps, a Methodist minister? — officiating a same sex marriage between two women.
This alternative strikes me as highly unlikely, because — according to Wikipedia — the first same sex marriage in Colorado took place in October 2014.
Alternative Two: The woman representing the United States is officiating a marriage between an older man and a much younger redheaded woman. (The scroll in the older man’s left hand might be a prenuptial agreement.)
Marriages between older men and younger women were not unusual in Colorado in 1876. The career opportunities for young women were rather limited in those days, when most of the men were up in the mountains digging for gold, or herding cattle. Back in those days, men outnumbered women in Colorado by about 6-to-1. For a female, the odds were good, but the goods were odd.
There were, however, a fair number of older businessmen living in places like Denver and Pueblo, and a clever girl — who was careful about what she was stepping into — could arrange a reasonably comfortable life for herself on the wild frontier.
In either case, the painting clearly illustrates the lopsided gender situation in Colorado in 1876.
I found the geography of the painting to be slightly confusing. The placement of the U.S. Capitol in the distance suggests that we are looking east. And the entryway arch, the tiny homestead cabins and the ominous mountain peaks likewise appear to be east of the gathered celebrants. That means we are actually west of Colorado.
Meaning that we — and the celebrants themselves — are actually in Utah. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I also noticed that several of the businessmen in attendance are not focused on the impending wedding vows, but are instead looking further to the west, at something happening outside the frame of the painting. Dreaming of property in California, are we?
Artist Joseph Hitchins, who passed away in Pueblo, Colorado, on January 17, 1893 at age 55, certainly had a fine eye for detail — even if some of the details are confusing.
But there is, in my humble opinion, something important missing from the painting.
Cows.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.