Women of the West

Women Of The West, by Cathy Luchette and Carol Olwell, offers an exceptional glimpse into the lives of women on the American frontier. Well-written stories, coupled with primary source photographs, provide personal accounts of the world that women lived in West in the 19th Century. Readers are drawn to not only the distaff side of pioneering but also to comparison of the usual male world vs. female world of that era. Dates and venues of the West that are familiar to historians are enhanced with personal color details of the lives of women who experienced the hardships that birthed the nation. This book is a must for the collections of those who love the history of the American West. While it is a great coffee table showpiece, it is much more---a marvelous book to pick up to read an account and linger over the revealing photographs.

then you'll love this book. Amazing true stories of survival and the hardships and joys women faced as they traveled west. Excerpts from diaries, etc. from real women. Encouraging to see how strong women really can be and how far we've come.

Women of the West is a great book. It tells of the women who endured so much to make a home for their families. This book is told through thier writings in their journals, so it comes first hand. I love the fact that if it weren't for the Women of the West, the west would have never been settled.

For myself, my burgeoning interest for anything related to 1850's western life was prompted by a visit to Bodie, a ghost town on the Eastern Sierras in California. Amazingly intact, this mining town preserves life as it was back then, down to the most minute detail and one that you can visualize through windows, storefronts and streets as you walk through the town. A trip to the museum offered more incredibly intimate and thought provoking glimpses into what the people's lives were like in those days. The life they lived was very difficult as profiled by the many wonderful books and resources sold there and available all along the Eastern Sierra towns. I purchased a few books detailing the history and people of Bodie. Soon, I became fascinated by the experiences the women had. Of the many books I have bought, I found this one, _Women of the West_ to be truly one of the best when it comes to portraying and historically presenting authentic writings and pictures of the nineteenth century "pioneer" women in the Western United States.Gripping and personal diaries reveal their thoughts and feelings as they travel to the west in covered wagons. Upon their arrival to their new "home", the journals reflect their personal situations as they struggle to settle the land and etch out a living. Some of the women are widowed by the time they arrive out West. Some are burdened with more children, complications of pregnancy and perhaps the death of the young ones. Against staggering obstacles, these women march on with such integrity and strength that it appears nothing less than heroic. Not given to whining and bitter complaining, their tone is of acceptance and self-reliance. The beauty of this book is in the wide assortment and many pictures that chronicle the women, their home and life style. The pictures are clear, large and detailed, so one can savor the peek into an 1850's home, hearth and kitchen, not to mention the lands and buisnesses they worked so hard on.There is so much offered to the reader, I can only say that this book is really a treasure: true stories and pictures that bring a virtual museum into your own hands.

I think we tend to forget that people and times in the past were as alive and could be as complex as things are today. I think this book could be summed up by the picture of the woman receiving title to her land. She's arranged for a photographer to come to her home, instead of posing at the studio. The land agent has affably agreed to travel to her home and participates in the pose the woman surely thought of herself: the act of handing over title to the land. One other interesting thing is that she isn't wearing a hat or bonnet - she wants everyone to see her face. She's standing in front of her house wearing her best outfit, not looking at the agent, but looking at the camera, her face reflecting the pride of hard-won independence and well-earned ownership.Lots of great stories, good writing, well-researched, and the photographs themselves are worth the price of the book.