Can a cookie save lives? The United States government thought so. In fact, they were on a mission to save lives one cookie at a…
"There was nothing but land; not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made… I had the feeling that the…
Today, the Great Plains is an area of great resources and beauty. Nevertheless, during past days and even current times, because of its size and…
No one knows, or will ever fully understand, why Caroline Henderson, nee Boa, daughter of a prosperous Iowa farmer, graduate of Mount Holyoke College in…
Sometimes the best plans go awry, and for intrepid female Matilda Glover Koontz Jackson, first aspirations of pioneering could easily have ended somewhere along the…
March is Women’s History Month, and it seemed fitting to me that a homesteading woman should be celebrated. The woman I chose was arguably at…
I'd like to introduce you to an extraordinary life, that of the pleasant-looking young woman in the portrait above Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, or Bamewawagezhikaquay. On…
Women bootleggers put men to shame in the days of Prohibition. Women moonshine smugglers were not unheard of; in fact, there may have been more…
It was tough to be Black in the U.S. in the era of “reconstruction” which some people frankly think of as a continuation—for African Americans—of…
“The days of wilderness adventure are not past! The pioneer spirit is not dead!” These stirring words were written by one of America’s best-known homestead…
There has always been a female face to agriculture: the tough homesteader pioneer woman on the frontier; the milkmaid; the tender of the flocks; the…
It’s a story with a simple, but remarkable, beginning. In 1910 a Black American entrepreneur joined forces with a legendary spokesman for Black innovation to…