When Dresden artist Jerri Whitman took her granddaughter to the Maine State House in August 2022, she hoped to show her that she could be anything she wanted when she grew up. But there was little to show, with few women included in the building’s vast collection of portraits.

“There are [81] women in the house,” Whitman said. “But walking through these halls, you wouldn’t know that.”

Portraits of Maine’s male lawmakers currently dominate the walls of the Capitol building. There is only one portrait of a woman politician visible — a large painting of Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican politician who made history as the first woman to represent Maine in Congress and serve in both the House and Senate.

Whitman, a longtime artist who is originally from Tennessee, decided that something needed to be done. Not long after her visit to the State House, Whitman called Sen. Eloise Vitelli, who had left a phone number on Whitman’s door while campaigning. Together, the two women laid the groundwork for an art project spearheaded by Whitman called “Women in Politics.”

On March 18, over a year and a half after Whitman’s visit with her granddaughter, the project came to fruition. Coinciding with Women’s History Month, the Hall of Flags displayed a daylong exhibit of Whitman’s paintings, which portrayed 25 bipartisan women in politics, past and present.

The collection took a year of planning, including seven months of painting. The artist described the process as both rewarding and emotional.

“Sometimes, I would sit in my studio, and I would almost cry because there’s so much history,” she said. “There’s so many firsts.”

Whitman’s painting collection featured the first woman elected to the Maine Legislature in 1922, Dora Pinkham. The artist also included Gov. Janet Mills, who was the first woman elected as attorney general in the state, and the first Black woman to serve as speaker of the House, Rachel Talbot Ross.

For Whitman, the collection serves as a reminder of women’s political history in Maine.

“If we’re not equally represented, how are our daughters and granddaughters going to know that there were women who worked here?” Whitman said.

Though Monday’s exhibit was only a day long, visitors can see the portraits again starting May 20 at the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. The library exhibit will last until November and will feature workshops and an artist talk led by Whitman.

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