Welcome . Welcome everyone thank, you for being here. My name is Jeremy Drouin im in the valley special collections and the local History Department in archives of the city public library. Our Research Room is headquartered just across the hall from this auditorium. In our collection, you will find books, manuscripts and journals of other Research Materials documenting kansas citys early history as a town and outfitter for travelers setting out on the trail. It is november 12th, 1927 were the sculpture was dedicated to allie park there. Not only celebrates kansas city s grand near history but is attributed to those who suffered great hardship and loss while traveling across the plains in search of a better life. And her new book pioneer mother monuments, constructed cultural identity historian cynthia press got worked through accessory of recognition in Pioneer Monuments and across the nation. Including those in the kansas city region. For honor to have her here today to discuss the research. Doctor prescott is a professor of history in north dakota and her research focuses on gender and the American West i specifically interception of gender, social class and historical memory. Her work in these areas as been published in journal of the west and a Historical Review and other publications. Prescott first book gender from the western frontier was polished in 2007. It traces changing roles and ideology among early white settlers in 1845 and 1900. While her academic focus and training on social history, she had a strong background in areas a public history including the curator ship and management and collections of management and rare book cataloguing and historic preservation. In short, she is the complete historian. Please join me in welcoming to the kansas city public library, cynthia press got. applause good afternoon. Merely 30,000 people attended the dedication of the pioneer statute in the valley park in 1927 and other monuments soon waiting in kansas City Residents had a tribute to long suffering monitors and in the 19 eighties, local residents were discovered kansas citys connection to the western trails. The long history in kansas city area the passing in awaiting of the region and the house. The earliest Pioneer Monuments by which i can stop and explain. The monument to be a sculpture and statute or a relief that is a piece of public art that is attributed to physically depicts frontier people. These are found throughout the country and have a dense concentration in the kansas city area. The earliest of these monuments as i call them are put out in the 1880s and increasingly in the years following world war one. They monuments that were put up at the turn of the century where explicitly depicting a hierarchy in the west. This is at the same time monuments weve heard so much and other groups in the south that were not in the west. They were putting up monuments that were depicting the west. Here in kansas city, they have really explicit renditions of the earliest monument and not as evident as other implications. Kansas citys earliest statute which fits this definition is exhibited at the world fare in 1915. It was being shift back east and was placed in penalities park. They liked it so much that it was raised up to 15,000 dollars to purchase the statue. They inducted in 1922 as part of the tribes. There were similar sculptures being put up in the 1910 the 1920s, but generally depicting people in a past tense thing. It was celebrating people who were disappearing race and social darwin some suggested that the most civilized races or to be white English Speaking americans would ultimately try to get through congress but they would fade into down to nothing. So, you get to this type which was fairly common and other cities also depicted sculpture of monuments that depict many people and white people towering over them so it was a hierarchy and that sort of thing was erupted in kansas city but this imagery focused on the early history in this region of trade and interactions between native people and white settlers which were quite common. They were taken from a map which was founded in 1812. Which considers itself to be the birthplace of kansas city in that region. West port was the First Committee in kansas city that had a monument pacific lee. They wanted to put up a life size to mark the centennial trail and they want to put this up and where marking the trail between and mexico and in spain. And west port was located on the trail and also had connections to the migration and well talk about that a little bit later on. This imagery is common and didnt make it into statues here in kansas city. What imagery does exist is more focused on interaction or celebrating in the past if not native persistence in the 20th century. Please excuse me, my kids have a cold troll try not to sniff or too much here. In the years after world war one, americans began to be interested in having the earliest response by men dressed and buckskin are conquering the native people were beginning in 1920 on which had depictions of pioneer explicitly depicted as mothers would became popular. Theyre located here in kansas city and its a little bit hard to make out but its very difficult for me to tie my visits to monuments all the way around the country and so my apologies that this one was not very well defined. This was sculpted by marrow gauge and erected in 1920 so they wanted to put up a sculpture for the santa fe trail and Business Leaders and historically minded men got really excited about the centennial in 1912 and it didnt come to be in time for the centennial but a group of women had formed the daughters to help promote that centennial. The aftermath of the centennial celebration after 1912 came to see a monument put up. They proceeded to do fundraising and they never reached the point of putting up a life size major undertaking. Instead, they looked to more typical model in terms of the time which is to put a sculptural plaque and the relief. The American Revolution in this time never sculpted by meryl gauge and in 1920 and you can see whats at the front and mother has an infant and a young boy and a rifle. But there is an image but it was sculpted in this sketch. That image gets there as well. Meanwhile, we see great interest and erecting a large monument in the kansas city area. But he wealthy a local businessman and a model being sculpted by alex who founded the model and said kansas city had to have it so he shows to erect this monument at the price at the time and i think it was 40,000 dollars. It was so extravagant at the time that they kept that information and didnt want people to know how he much he spent on his sculpture. Which is a larger than life and the sculptor of a mother and holding her influence and her husband was guiding the other side where you see that as well. So, massive very elaborate and he sought placed and a location to pick out and if youre familiar at all with the park its in the highway thats puts the park in two and the west side in our hills to sloat. The west side of the highway is where the scout stands that i showed you earlier which was over kansas city and was placed on the other side of above world war one in this memorial. And it doesnt gauge out over the city but its a point in contention that either needs to be over the city and put in westward by depicting women on the trail and artist had them face self where the light is best. In the case of kansas city, they went to the location rather than historically more precise. This is a sculpture study produced and other parts of the country but this is the largest sovereignty produced and emphasize the suffering on a civilizing on what is perceived to be a percentage land. And he borrowed imagery put in the Cumberland Gap which george painted in 1851 and was an image that was throughout the country known as print media and became impossible in the 19th century which was quite familiar to people in the 1920s. So, explicitly along this pioneer mother with the virgin mary and the mother of jesus. So, where ledges am injury was in her plotting last. Like daniel boone showing similar version mary as a woman in the gap in an earlier time period. They further reinforce this connection the of the women sacrifice and the falling of her husband and placing around the base which begins that people should be my people and my god is my god the assumption here is that she and her husband are both christian. Its not that she is following got as a result of this. But its a passage that was off quoted by emphasizing the roots of the soft sacrifice and commitment to embracing values of the christian tradition. This is the most famous sculpture here in kansas city. But as far from being the only pioneer mother sculpture in the 19 twenties and thirties. In fact, as many of them i referred to as the pioneer mother in these two decades. The other most famous perhaps are the 12 identical sculptures that the daughters of the recreation are across the country in 1920 and so the daughters of the group as we mentioned earlier were erecting the leave plaques on them with the imagery and both and also had a project where there are marking these trials with these polls that were white and blue. They began to realize that there was a national trailed road and national mapped out and for maryland to california. There is a whole distance but all these plans to put up soon proved just in practical. Putting up plaques will be way too expensive and painted telephone poles but are hard to maintain throughout the country. They said that he shifted gears and had one sculpture per state so the trails remarked by these larger than life sculptors who like that old west port relief from a few years earlier was not more than a rifle and is never in the act of shooting and its about hunting or fighting people as a sign that they have for protection and the west was an unsafe place that emphasizes the reactions that theyre facing. They show them plotting west and a few years later, they wanted to erect the state house lawn and they initially chose a sculpture that was similar to oklahoma which showed a young attractive woman walking west with a young son asset. They intended to erect a similar one in the same sculpture but the version which i dont have an image for you today had a pioneer Woman Holding inaudible they would imply that in fact, if you know anything about womens history they were in fieldwork and the early years on the frontier and kansas they were in missouri. In the early years but the goal on the frontier people would be to maintain separate spheres and men would work in the fields and women would work on the home but they didnt like anybody to talk about that. They want to raise that from her memory. So, they replaced our favorite design with this one in the same sculpture from about 15 years earlier which shows a woman with a rifle instead of a safe. Oddly, you dont have women shooting guns but it didnt even crossed their mind that you perceive this as a woman going out to fight humans or wild animals. Its entirely a defensive way for her. Unless you think that she has a strong woman that the sculptures might imply and the gauge sculptor on the state house line has receded with her hot son reading a book and its hard to tell in this culture of holding her baby while placing her in a chair they had a fantastic space and had her resting from her layers and have her contained in domestic sphere and across her lap just in case anything happens while her husband is away doing what men do and in working in the fields and the forest. She remains in the home. This is the kind of imagery that audience out across the country. If its well i think with the kansas city pen valley sculpture that shows her interviews to the west which social on horseback. In reality they walked on the trail but increasingly in the late twenties and they get interested in depicting her as an iconic pioneer mother writing in a color to again or a kansas city one and hours because even walking 2000 miles we dont think about women doing. I want to think about women being including a domestic space as much as possible. There is a tension here that they are trying to protect her as being a proper woman. Civilized the women. By placing her in spaces that are at least certain domestic or contained in some way. Interesting Pioneer Monuments decline suffering differently after world war ii. Most cities there were 2000 monument alone in the 20s and 30s. That is just a handful put up in a decades immediately following world war ii. When they did get put out there were no longer being placed and really prominent locations right. And very park in the heart of kansas city this inhouse lawn instead they tended to appear in smaller towns. Oren suburbs the average trying to make a name for themselves. For example privilege Shopping Center. Then you post war Shopping Center. This was great sight in terms of civic life in the 1940s and 50s late forties early sixties public life moves are from the downtown city center, civic center area, to suburban areas. People are burning suburbs and getting in our current revolution perceptive about than being on the foot and in the city. Made perfect sense to put a pioneer statue at the time it was placed at the edge of the parking lot for the Shopping Center. Brand new Shopping Center we are valuable their local cancers routes because you have a pioneer family. Mom, that and 18. Sitting at the entrance to our Shopping Center. It was much more later when the Shopping Center changed that this piece was later moved so the fountain in a Traffic Circle that you see here and my picture. Monumental the post war period also tended to depict a nuclear family. Occasionally magnetic this one. Some of them have appeared in the 1920s somewhat less frequently than the solo by new woman and her children. But it becomes the family units and more of an emphasis in the 19 fifties as American Culture begins focusing on the nuclear family. Again this is a part of this moving to suburban life. Rather than being a part of it extended. People are instead of the nuclear family. Increasingly instead of a baby they start depicting a young son. A ten year old or teenager who represents the hope for the future of the nation. Excuse me one moment. Things begin to change again in the 1970s. As the United States prepares to celebrate independence from the Great Britain in 1976, the nation initially planned the government initially planned, a federal nationwide celebration that was going to be held in d. C. Washington d. C. To philadelphia. No one could agree on what that should look like. Its not a time of growing identity politics. Out of the 1960s in early seventies. You have an interest in African American identity as an interest in lets not identity and so on and so forth. The nation is more fragmented in the way that it just remember itself in the wake of those identity Politics Movement debate over vietnam and so forth. And so National Celebration set to decided to put the resources behind encouraging local history celebration. State and local level commemorations. And this leads to renewed interest in all sorts of american history. People interested in the cohen or history. Quilting. To get into the room in the 19 century as well even though it is not part of the story of the u. S. Independence in the 1776. Many communities and people in the midwest got interested in celebrating their front yard heritage in pioneer stories but human important thing that people love to talk about. And so as part of that project, the city of wichita erupted this pioneer a woman known as heritage woman as she was placed in annually formed heritage park. Is it the pockets park behind county Historical Society museum. The former kind of a library. This then represented an ode to women who walked west on the train of the frontier trail rather than depicting here in the sun but i would rifle which was broken decided to depict her preparing to be in a kansas stream. To wash off the bus he said. He is of course powerful long traditions feel notice our scene ice being essential to many aspects of the fine art. Relatively sculpture. But it is more stylized than a war wouldve been done as modern or sculpture in say 1915. And so brian was merging that Classical Tradition of a new sculpture with more avantgarde movements that were going into more stylized directions and by the 1960s in early seventies. So this interest in local history and in inclusivity of lots of different local stories encourage people to put up this monument that top people were thinking was lovely in 1976. Fast forward to their early 2000s and people are going to have a problem with the sculptured appears because three times in the last 15 years this culture has been severely vandalized. Hands chopped off. The sculptures toppled and theyve had to remove it for major restoration work several times. We dont know who attacked this culture. He couldnt even manifesto explaining why they did so but i think they suggest that maybe people arent so happy with a pioneer woman who is nude in at least not in wichita. laughs to my knowledge no one has attacked another Pioneer Monument that stands about some miles away on the river fronts in the news in front of the newly built civic center in downtown wichita this one is called a hardship and dream it is a more traditional depiction of opined women in the sunbonnet carrying a viable and a statue and leading her son by the hand. This by 1994 wichita had embraced imagery that directly evoke sculptures that are in the 1920s. Wichita and many others smaller mudslides city start to erect monuments like this one in the 1990s. That are about to the 1920s and pioneer Mother Movement so many of them that you could argue there is a second Pioneer