One Woman's Journey
"Left my family and started on my long
trip across the plains." With these quiet words, Mary Ringo began the tale
of her family's journey from Missouri to Utah.
Join us as we follow her wagons across the plains through storms and
desert, disease, Indian attacks, and death.
Focusing on a single document, Sheridan
Harvey, Library of Congress Reference Specialist for Women's Studies, uses
other first-person accounts, maps, and photographs to augment Mary's story and
to explore the rich history of America's overland journeys.
The journal of
Mrs. Mary Ringo; a diary of her trip across the Great Plains in 1864, with a
foreword and conclusion by her daughter Mattie Bell Cushing.
American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study
of Women's History and Culture in the United States. American Memory.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/awhbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(gcmisc+awh0014))
image 8 – Photograph of Mary Peters Ringo
image 13 – Preface by Mattie Bell Cushing, Mary’s daughter
image 17 – Mary Ringo’s text begins.
image 18 – Brief entries
image 23 – Indian scaffolds
image 31 – Indian attack
image 36 – Martin Ringo, Mary’s husband, dies.
image 53 – Conclusion written by Mattie Bell Cushing
Westward Ho! [1868], Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a49455
Johnny Ringo: The Story of the “King of the Cowboys” - http://www.johnnyringo.com/jrbelife.html
Martin Ringo Gravesite, Oregon-California Trails Association - http://www.octa-trails.org/adam/learning_center/people_places/grave_ringo_martin.html
Biography – The Handbook of Texas Online, University of Texas, Austin - http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/RR/fri51.html
American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
Immigration, American Expansion Browse List- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Immigration,+American%20Expansion
California As I Saw It, American Memory- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbhome.html
California As I Saw It Search Page - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/calbkquery.html
Panoramic Maps, 1847 – 1929, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml/panhome.html
Bird’s Eye View of the City of Leavenworth, Kansas, 1869 - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(g4204l+pm002300))+@field(COLLID+pmmap))
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ndfahtml/ngphome.html
· Anders Hultstrand sod house, Soper Post Office, Dakota Territory, 1897 - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ngp:@field(NUMBER+@band(ndfahult+c491))
· Sod Houses - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ngp:@FIELD(SUBJ+@band(+Sod+houses++North+Dakota++Soper++1890+1899++))
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog - http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html
· George O. Waters, Dry Valley, near Comstock Nebraska, 1887 - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@1(ppmsca+08381))
· Hartley Ranch, Lillian Township on the Middle Loup River, Custer County, Nebraska, 1886 - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@1(ppmsca+08377))
Travels from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the gulf : being the narrative of a twelve years ramble and what was seen and experienced, by Amos H. Gottschall, 1882. American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920, American Memory
CHAPTER IX, p. 108 - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtn01631div13))
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
· A family grave scaffold, 1904 - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a47106
· Scaffolds bearing dead Indian bodies, Black Hills, 1907 - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a18365
American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lhtnhtml/lhtnhome.html
Search by Keyword: Descriptive Information or Full-Text - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lhbtnbibquery.html
Searching on the keyword women in the search box for Search Descriptive Information (Bibliographic Records): yields 2 volumes. Searching on women in the Search Full Text search box yields 2691 hits (First change the number in “Return a maximum of – hits” to 5000.).
In this instance, searching on women isn’t the best choice since women was not the most common term in the nineteenth century. To locate accounts by women, browse the Author index for women's names, bearing in mind that naming customs vary and men and women wrote under each others' names.
Possible search terms: woman, women, lady, ladies, female, girl, daughter, wife, widow, sister, aunt, grandmother, Mrs., Miss, mistress, maid, engagement, fiancée, dowry, marriage, bride, wedding, baby, birth, childbirth, midwife, christening, children, divorce, sewing, cooking, canning, laundry, quilts, dresses, skirts, blouses, shirtwaists, hats, needlework, tatting, nurse, teacher, governess, domestic economy, domestics, servant, slave, actress, sculptress, secretary, laundress, witch, nun, queen, etc. Try both singular and plural forms separately, ex. lady or ladies; woman or women. It is usually a good idea to try other forms for all terms.
For suggestions, see Searching American Memory for Women's History Materials - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awsearcham.html
More Women’s Diaries:
More Women’s Diaries, Her Story, Learning Page Feature - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/pages_herstory/addresource.html
(1849) Smith, Bathsheba W. Bigler. Diary, 1847 and 1873, Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/upboverbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(dia1180))
(1875) Miss Gula B. Foote, American Life Histories, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa333040603))
(1849) Diary, 1849 – 1852, Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion, 1820-1890, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mymhiwebib:@field(NUMBER+@band(mymhiwe+mv659))
(1865) From a New England woman's diary in Dixie in 1865, Southern Voices: Texts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/uncall:@field(DOCID+@lit(AXZ-3727+++))
(1883) From Maine to the Mississippi, by Yankee girl, American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtnbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(lhbtn+40796))
(1914) Our wondrous trip [by] Myrtle I. Barrett, American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920, American Memory – http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtnbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(lhbtn+00081))
Women’s History Month, Library of Congress Resource Page - http://www.loc.gov/topics/womenshistory/
American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/
First-Person Accounts in American Memory, American Women, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awgc1/firstacct.html
Women Pioneers of the Northern Great Plains, Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ndfahtml/hult_women.html
Ask A Librarian - http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/