Women of the West

by Cathy Luchetti, Carol Olwell

Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. A myth-shattering look at the women who helped to settle the West, told through their own words and illustrated with 150 period photographs. Through these photos, plus diaries, memoirs, letters, and journals, Women of the West introduces 11 real frontier women whose words combine to re-create a place and time when resourcefulness and courage were demanded of everyone. This is American history, not as it was romanticized, but as it was lived. "An authentic, refreshing and even inspiring view of life on the frontier."— San Francisco Chronicle "[H]andled with a very human touch throughout all these diaries.... this is quite a book."— Seattle Times "[A] human appeal rarely touched in most history books of the westward expansion."— Kansas City Star "Anyone interested in American history should read [it]....the most handsome of recent books emphasizing the role of pioneer women."— Cleveland Plain Dealer "[Evokes] a striking portrait of everyday life among nineteenth-century women."— St. Petersburg Times

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Womens, Memoir, Research, Feminism, Biography

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[LPK]

This book is amazing. It includes excerpts from women's diaries, but not just your average covered wagon/ Oregon Trail pioneers. We have diaries of black women, Mormons, even a section on the Chinese! And they're not small fragments leaving you longing for the whole, they're long selections! Women running their own ranches, women settling homesteads, women commenting on the deaths of babies and battling depression and trying to find jobs... It's just a fantastic cross-section of varied, original, unique women's perspectives.

And the photos! If you read much pioneer history, like I do, you get your average selection of posed family photographs, and big group photos at large events and gatherings. This book makes it a point to collect photos of women doing regular, ordinary things, as well as the extraordinary: women washing clothes, schoolgirls whispering, women hiking the Yukon trail! Women laughing at their cats, women at work, and women's dead babies, poisoned by the milk of a cow that had gotten into locoweed. Incredible!

[Iris Bratton]

Told through letters and diary entries, this book is a compilation of women's lives in early America. This is very digestible nonfiction as it is told through a narrative. It makes it very easy to read through.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It allows the reader to see snapshots of the rough life of American women. I also appreciate that they include entries from women of color. I think it made the book much more inclusive and gave a well-rounded perspective of women during this time.

Though the stories are told of those long ago, it's interesting to discover that we as women still share the same fears, hopes and passions. It's a great piece of feminist nonfiction.

[Smith]

Saw this book in the library at Tahoe and requested it when we got home. So glad I did. Vintage photographs along with numerous first-person accounts of western women.

[missy jean]

This book is really phenomenal: the stories and photos illuminate the many diverse spaces women occupied in the early American West. I take off a star, though, because I felt the book's treatment of race and ethnicity (especially in respect to Native American women) was underdeveloped and the book as a whole didn't adequately interrogate power structures, imo.

[Victoria]

I loved this! What better way to learn about the lives of women in west than in their own words? I appreciated the variety of personalities and experiences chosen by the editors - the victories, tragedies, and everyday experiences were fascinating.

[Andy Iakobson]

Huge variety of primary sources, had a lot of fun reading this.

[Erika Nerdypants]

It took me a long while to finish this beautiful collection of photographs, journal entries and letters, but it was so worth it.

[effie]

whole chapters on minority women !! pages on methodology !! amazing photos!!!! i love the past and women are just so powerful

[Laura]

Fascinating

[Michelle Ventresca]

So very interesting to read how life was for women way back when. No air-conditioning? Only kidding about that, but it was quite heartbreaking to read how many women lost not one, but maybe two or three children during their lifetimes from various illnesses that today have been wiped out. It certainly was a struggle, but they persevered and became landowners themselves, or doctors in a time when it was unheard of for a woman. What struck me was how they all worked from early light to 9 or 10 at night doing all the chores that we can accomplish now in a few hours.

[alexxus kristyn]

I had a hard time deciding whether to rate this book a three or four star rating... because the book is NOT a bad book, and concerning quality, it deserves a five star rating. However, my interests don't really lie in non-fiction Western books, so I had a hard time trooping through most of the stories. But, I was bound and determined to read it, and I did. If you're into nonfiction journal accounts of life in the West, this is definitely the book for you. For me, however, the pictures were the best part, and I think I'll stick to my fiction stories. ;)

[Judy]

My book group read this because Carol Olwell is part of our group so it was our chance to read a book and talk to an author. Since the book is photos from across the 1800s and portions of 12 women's journals, letters & diaries from this time, I liked "hearing" the original voice of each woman and seeing photos of things she probably experienced.

[Susan]

I stopped reading this before finishing. Personal journals can be instructive, interesting, or tedious. All three types are included in this book. It was simply too long to hold my interest. The historic photos are fascinating. This book is worth a casual perusal unless you're using it for study of the settlers of the American west or Women's Herstory.

[Whitney]

Awesome! Fantastic stories of the really really wild wild West– best of all, told *by the women who lived them!!* All 1st person accounts from diaries and letters of truly courageous pioneers, from totally diverse backgrounds (ethnically, culturally, their reasons for coming west, circumstantially, financially, etc.), which is so cool! And the pictures are like, to die for. I treasure this book.

[Alie]

I found this book a fascinating introduction into the experiences of women during the great west migration. It contains diary entries from several women (including Elinor Pruitt Stewart)and pictures of the women along the journey, cooking in their sod homes, roping horses. It is very cool.

[Jacki]

Good book, definitely a coffee table book. Sometimes the diaries are lacking grammar and it can make for a difficult, slow read. With that in mind, I highly recommend this book, but take your time...amazing women and captivating pictures are vividly portrayed through each diary.

[Corbin]

Five stars for the selection of primary sources. Zero stars for the ethnocentrism, implicit and explicit, and the disgusting way the author skated over issues of race.

[Kathy]

Gorgeous, fascinating photos.

[Diana]

A gorgeous book, with fascinating pictures of women in the West during the 19th century, and a text that is mostly the diaries and letters of women of the same period.

[Christine McCloud]

Especially love all the photos. Favorite story: Bethenia Owens-Adair. Very inspirational

[Suzanne Kelly]

Wonderful book made up of excerpts from letters and journals from women who made the trek west. Great photos as well.

[Donna]

This book made me so grateful for living in this modern day!

[Kelly]

Wonderful book. A must read for every woman looking for positive role model types.

[Bethany]

Loved the pictures and first hand accounts of westward pioneer women.

[Jean Mehochko]

I enjoyed this book! Taken from diaries and letters written by women who headed west in the mid-1800s, their day-to-day "doings," trials and tribulations. It made me reflect on how my days go and how easy we really have it today with our modern conveniences, travel options, communication. Everything was so much more difficult back then and so many died in childbirth or shortly after. I'm not sure the women of today, myself included, have the pioneer spirit/ability to struggle through.

Great photos throughout as well.