Pioneer Women-The Lives of Women on the Frontier is a must for collectors of western lore-whether as used for reference or just for reading pleasure this book delves into little covered issues and answers the questions previously unmentioned regarding women on the frontier. From traveling west to every day life, from cooking to birth control, women domestic pioneers to women entrepreneurs; if you have a question about the lives of women in the 1800's this book probably has the answer in its pages.

This book will open your eyes up to the way things were a century and a half ago. Back to the basics is an understatement. Imagine raising 8 children on a farm that you had to establish yourself because your husband and other family members perished on the trip west to get to an unknown territory far far away from immediate family? These women did it. They survived and thier children either a: lived and learned the life or b: died from illness or accidents. This is very graphic and very personable to the very core of many women's souls. Women who kept diaries on the Oregon Trail in 1850 and onwards. Women who were always "in the background" keeping the family fed, clothed, silent and schooled. Women are most definitly the most gentle and most strong of the sexes.. Why? Because they have a continuous human spirit and one that gets them through the toughest of times of all.
Please read this book and with that said.. the pictures in this book are a historian's dream!

Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith do a fine job of showing and telling the pioneer experience through the eyes of our frontier women. With visual images and descriptive narratives, PIONEER WOMEN details the everyday struggles and deprivations experienced by our westward women.

The stories are about courageous women that left behind well-established homes to travel to unsettled regions; women that learned to "make do" and start from scratch to set up housekeeping; women from all walks of life who melded together to do what they could to improve their new surroundings; and the women who civilized the West.

PIONEER WOMEN is a collection of stories as taken from letters, diaries, memoirs, oral histories, and other personal papers of women themselves. It's brilliantly reconstructed and a must read for the avid or casual reader!

Peavy fills in some historical blanks while she presents the reader with the American migration westward. The missing stories she brings to us are those of the children. And not just children on the move. Frontier Children shows us images and glimpses into the lives of those children who were already there when settlers came.

The book is rich with photographs of children in their time. The pictures and stories show us the diversity that was distinct in our young country at a pivotal moment of our transition into what we have become as a nation. The extensive collection of photographs in Frontier Children includes images of Mexican, Chinese, African American children as well as Native American children. That alone makes this book an unusual look at our history.

Having met Ursula and Linda personally, I can attest to the enthusiasm and zest that went into their reasearch on the little known "small people" of the American frontier. THey have studied the American west extensively and are well versed in all aspects of early frontier life. FRONTIER CHILDREN relates the hardships and also the fun children endured settling and living "out west". Oftentimes, children were the lone survivors of the west when one or both of their parents died mysteriously of unknown causes and perils. Also revealed is the joy of family life and the few pleasures they shared. The book presents a plethora of historical photographs including those by famous photographer, Evelyn Cameron from Terry, Montana, who had the forsight to record historical scenes. This book offers a comprehensive study of the American west and its forgotten children.