>> welcome? welcome everyone thank, you for being here. my name is jeremy drouin i'm 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 city's 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 city's 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 we've 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 city's -- 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 we'll talk about that a little bit later on. this imagery is common and didn't 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. they're located here in kansas city and it's a little bit hard to make out but it's 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 didn't 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 fund-raising 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 what's 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 didn't 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 you're familiar at all with the park it's in the highway that's 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 doesn't gauge out over the city but it's 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. it's not that she is following got as a result of this. but it's 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 it's 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 they're 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 don't have an image for you today had a pioneer woman holding (inaudible) they would imply that in fact, if you know anything about women's 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 didn't 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 don't have women shooting guns but it didn't even crossed their mind that you perceive this as a woman going out to fight humans or wild animals. it's 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 it's 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 it's 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 don't 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 in-house 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. it's 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 let's 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 would've been done as modern or sculpture in say 1915. and so brian was merging that classical tradition of a new sculpture with more avant-garde movements that we're 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 they've had to remove it for major restoration work several times. we don't know who attacked this culture. he couldn't even manifesto explaining why they did so but i think they suggest that maybe people aren't 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 movement i get started in the mid 1990s. meanwhile in other places people start having a problem with pioneer imagery. portland oregon. san francisco places known for being politically progressive elise part of the population seem more progressive people are complaining about protesting new or older monuments has not being sufficiently inclusive of

a local native population are expressing concerns about celebrating the fourth removal of native people. wichita did not seem too concerned about that part. they were more concerned of communities -- are saying no we have to stick to the traditional imagery and that we still want grandma what a sunbonnet lot of the pieces by saying he kept those things and we don't need grandma anymore we need to recognize the larger implications so what grandma the. the number of communities to put up monuments and in many of them i argue we are being motivated at least two more substantial extent by a desire to promote heritage tourism. and in some cases they are explicitly saying we are going to put up a huge

installation and this is going to attract people to our location which was a historic sites on the street crossing on a chisel trail or cattle will driven a century. today it is just an x community to the city of boston. but by embracing the pioneer history they are able to sort of pitch themselves that way. so more things are happening in kansas city. let's put it once again gets interested in that pioneer mother monuments in pent valley park by the 19 eighties this section of planned rally park had become rather seedy the monument itself has become over going you can really see it there. was a parking lot sort of path to it but it all got over growth. there was a sense that this beautiful monument was falling insulin had been

forgotten right and some community leaders in the west port petitioned to move that sculpture from canned valley park to a more heavily visited location in downtown west port what i mentioned before on my -- considers itself to be the birthplace of kansas city. it was on santa fe trail there was on the overall threat on the part of the oregon california trails as well. they were really interested in playing this monument where they thought it would be seen and conveniently would also help draw tourists to their historic sites as well this did not go well with the city of kansas city who was quite content to forget the thing was there until someone else tried to claim it and this is not the only place with this happen somebody says you forget it's there until someone else says hey we want to that. no that is

our beautiful monuments kansas city seven are going to do that in the park ultimately said the donor hardest specifically shows this site for this most beautiful sculpture it will demean the scope to move it to small little park in a crowded area and an old west port and to stay where it is and so west port sort of lost that battle. a second time they had a woman in the 1920s try to get in the 19 eighties still did not get it. so they responded by finally erecting a monument of their own tunnels because depend on the park one but they put up their own monuments to specifically west port related people. notably they are branded the pioneer mother and put up a culture of three men right who are much more

associated with commerce than family settlement. the men depicted here are traded and johnson record. businessmen cofounder of the pony express alexandra majors and western merchants and not mention bridges who retired so west for into 18 fifties. these are big names in this area. these are prominent man and if we cannot have a generic iconic painting a mother that is final respond by saying no we have a real clam because these three employment all came from here a live view at some time. this is the kind of local identity choices that they are making in the creation of this. that is a very short version of that so if you want the longer version you can buy my because i saw more detail. okay meanwhile other parts of other communities outside the city

down reserve kansas city also got interested in promoting heritage tourism in the eighties and 1990s. independence also was really interested in a promoting its history. independence has to become so. as a jumping off point for the oregon california trails and as the home of president. harry sherman. he happens to be heavily involved in the project to mark the national trails wrote that settlers of the american revolution status report across this country the 1920s by the way he's obviously i figure -- political figure but he has an interest in it as well. independent is important and both of these in the past and they have erected a national frontier trail museum and

sculpture in the coal yard will evoke the hardships of women. this is something that happened pretty often that if you want to put up a museum or a sort historic site will be great if you had trail runs to show you're museum but if you don't have things that are survived from the show, they did survive in certain places and where the trail was crowded into an area and are actually carved and permanent marks inside boise and idaho there, are places where these persist in urban areas in the defensive kansas city and if they didn't really have an historic building into for the trail up and it's an

emergency story that was set off on the trail. putting up a bronze monument next to your museum helps evoke the history that was not physically preserved with a bronze statue it is that. he was sculpted by juan rivera women independence raise money and the women of independence and all those who pass through in the west and then, the sculpture had cast and in keeping with our tradition at the time, he chose to add color to it and to the outside of the bronze. and he

chose the color blue is associated with the virgin mary and so forth. and as a color that was evoked with paintings throughout the roots of the 21st century. but the women of independence are horrified when the sculpture arrives because the color was really too garish for our pioneer mother. and there was a tension going on here that there was a long tradition and that they did have color and faded overtime. it was originally painted that this was a tradition as part of the revival and that it's my words or not there is that we don't need anything to override. once they got the sculpture out

and out of bubble wrap, they said maybe it's not so bad and overtime then, it faded so we see what happens and by the time i was in the sculpture in 2008, it's not real obvious that it wasn't very bright. 1990 the trail frontier and the communities in the areas start jumping on the bandwagon and they erected a crossing in what will you used to believe was a car lot. and that they didn't like the price tag which is half 1 million if my numbers are right. we don't need anything this elaborate. it's a little bit hard to tell but this is sculpted into stone and

concrete. it's a really fit of the bronze sculpture and you notice again. with a blue patina that caused a ruckus in independents 25 years earlier but it is a mixed media with stone to show there is a wagon master nearby as well. nearby, i get the pronunciation right and olathe wanted to mark their history and they marked their connection to the commercial traffic on the set of a trail.

they were focused on focusing those two stagecoach stop and historic stagecoach stop and they chose a canada siri area sculpture which was born and trained in china before i came to the united states. his depiction of a stagecoach as culturally inclusive across the country. it's about 200 of them so far and this one has fairly standard and a jury over the wagon and there's the notion of pulling the conveyance which are inside various ages and ethnicities and on top of the

people there are crowded into the stagecoach and literally piled on are some people of color and are up on the top of the stage coach and writing on the outside. you have a native american woman to the travelers and interestingly it's being present here rather than being removed and is waving the people off further to the west and perhaps might be a presence there but i'm not sure. and there is american weather son and trying to board who get themselves in somehow and the boy holds in his hand a crane that evokes the birds are flying over. i have not been

able to find any historical presidents for this or that have been practiced in the 19th century here or how common it really was in the 19 fifties either. but that suggests to me that it wasn't quite comfortable depicting asian americans despite the fact there was chinese population that was gone to the west to help the railroads and that's not a history which was to the stagecoach. it doesn't fit with people and perceptions. so i think must have a way to asian people that are depicted. lots of communities around here -- but not everybody likes it equally. we talked a moment ago about this very blue woman and

she was stolen in 1913 or 2013. and cut up and they attempted to sell her for scrap. fortunately, somebody at the scrap dealer recognized the issue at hand and refused to accept it and that scrap dealer had security cameras onset. they turned the person away at the time and didn't attempt a citizens arrest on policy like we think people did in the 19th century. but whether they did or not is a different question. they did report this to the authorities and were apprehended and paid retail for it. independence said we will replace her so stole it it 2030,

three usually she was installed and early 2017. they moved her from a courtyard in the interior of the museum two out front which. they argued what was a secure location where they could pull up to the parking lot and tried to grab her there which was all around on sunday morning. but she is in a location now with our lights and security cameras and the idea is to put out and a location to make it more obvious were out someone is trying to steal her. it also makes it more prominent to be tucked away in a corner where they had a window to look out into the courtyard and now do you have to walk right by her to get to this museum. this is embracing what the east oracle

museums in the west are doing which is right out in front as a traffic stop or to draw people in about that looks cool and let's see it. so, we then over these hundred years sea a fallen rise again and his pawn pioneer monument and over what they mean and what it should look like and what their future should be. but overall, it seems to be that kansas city is embracing the monument and efforts which are not that different from what people are doing in the 19 tends to 1920s were they put kansas city on the map with fine art, it's not that different from what vendor slice was trying to do. i can talk about all of these stories in this area but if you like to learn more, you can check out

my book and i'll be signing books after fear adjusted. i also created a website. and this you can get for free. it has information about different monuments and you can search or browse the location and you can also look at the highlights to have individual locations highlighted in the images of different monuments. because every one time i go someplace and kansas city for the past ten or 12 years, every time i leave kansas city i put coming on line and there's something i do know is there. i was out there visiting this morning because last time i came through they had cast her and she wasn't in place yet. you can learn more and what i'm taking this way can i will applaud so you can see more. my website also has an interactive

tidal and it has this at the top were you can drag across with your mouths and watch where they pop up over time and space to see where those patterns are shifting and that's pretty cool. i'm also involved in an apt called cleo. it is a yelp of historical sites so at last count they have 35,000 sites or somewhere like that. they have individual sites so it's an app on your phone or you can do it on your computer as well. you can visit these places and will guide you and it has a mapping feature he located to these locations and the process of putting the 200 monument out there we have a little bit less than half of them up and regulating those pays pages and we have the software to have walking in heritage tours. if you want to

check out the monuments in the kansas city area, go to cleo or to my website and you can visit them and if you want to spend a few hours driving around in the area and get to know those. or you can do it virtually from the comfort of your own home. with that i will stop talking and i would love to hear questions. (applause) >> thanks for coming to kansas city. but i'm curious about fashion and stuff. you talk about the sites that were not

used with rifles what they pocket and almost everyone seems to have a bomb it. is there any theme to the fashions that were used in these monuments? good question the most consistent element probably into the sunbonnet. let's talk about it evokes the coating of that time period. style just cold goes with the but the sunbonnet seems to be the thing people get most excited about. -- in oklahoma sponsored nationwide competition to direct the monument in oklahoma. and he directed i had to be one of the sunbonnet. people talk about a sunburn ally and that was in the 1920s. the sunbonnet and sometimes also with or without the sun but on a covered wagon cover sort of serving as a hero overhead right. i think there is ahead of elements to the

coverage of sunbonnets and also and full sizes whiteness. who minorities but it's -- from some burning or tennis you wanted to keep your skin pale and why the 19th century so it is a race social component to it. the only exception are a few sculptures refer to put her in a head scarf overhead to support her shoulders. if it fragrances in one of its culture one of the one that comes to mind for that. they seem to be more explicitly evoking visionary kind of imagery but otherwise the sunbonnet is coming what should be in her hands, whether she has children or not is more contested and motivated. there has been hot debate about for a city which i'm sorry i would also bring aside for you to shore her to you, whether it is a bubble in the hands of the book. spoiler it is a viable,

the artist intended to be as such and most of them intent to that. some put across on it explicitly, or words on its way for that it is a viable. indicating her civilizing element, her role in bringing white civilization to a 19th land. do you still language at the time. sometimes also a satchel. either a satchel or a baby, some kind of a burden. she has to look like she is working at it but not working in the field. we talked about that. she needs to be a weighted down by her responsibilities but she needs to something that can a civilization. so a bag, satchel, she might hold that. or a baby, or a son who embodies hope for the future and can serve a similar personnel.

>> you've mentioned the controversies surrounding the monuments over time and the vandalizing for example that is taking place as well and stealing and scraping the monuments. i wonder if you have any observations about inclusiveness, expanding the context of a particular monuments before they're either destroyed or removed or vandalized? our history we are appropriates these things over again over a long period of time and part of it it seems to me, part of the importance of the monument is to remember the way that these particular things will be remembered at a particular time so the whole issues about racism or gender or ethnicity or all of those kinds of issues forgetting that we remembered them in a

particular way without expanding on those kinds of issues could you comment about those please? >> i can't really think of any examples in which the vandals or protesters who are really complaining about the pictures of womanhood so it doesn't seem to be a problem kilogram are in a sunbonnets maybe some people aren't interested in getting money to that project but are not hearing anybody push effeminate perch back in fact earlier the woman who are putting out pioneer mothering on human side as well we would typically five minutes project was a way to promote women. we need to know what the women did as well the famous land. >> we don't have sculptures. we have opposite louise incognito on going. that kind of things going on. where there has been explicit debate and vandalism has been a few cases that are

really explicit in their depiction of racial hierarchy or ethnic iraqi. in places where our communities are particularly progressive. this video surfaces could have a party monument was put up an 1884. it's a 16 feet tall and as a tower of white supremacy essentially. the goddess of our top of the protecting the spirit of california, and then it has been on a roll of white man -- out the explores up to mexican anger american political leaders in california and that has depictions of gold miners. it has a piece called early days which was a sculptural gripping of spanish missionary, a native man lying in his feet and the mexican

cowboy swinging alas over his head in the background. this became controversial in san francisco in the 1990s at a time where people, the u.s. was marking divided on diversity of christopher columbus running in the world and there was a political confrontation about whether that something should be celebrated or not. are we celebrating conquest here? and so in the midst of that native activism it's a con issue with early this culture that shows the indian kind of car writing they thought before the missionary. the roman catholic church or spanish national governments agreed to father was a depression of a kindly quietly helping bring thousands of christianity tonight if people which is how the sculpture intended undergoes earlier. there was people last red paint on that portion of this culture, they wanted

removed, unsuccessfully. what happened and so was the city put it back which they have argued about the text of. extending up the native population in california with devastated by white settlement and that the population was decimated and so they resorts a put up a plaque -- controversy. fast forward 25 years as the southern population started to challenge confederate monuments and beginning in 2015 there is a new attention to this pioneer monument in san francisco and then activists protect the public arts commission to remove that portion of the larger monument in the early days portion. there was a lawsuit filed circumvent that from happening fought back and forth and they did finally thought it was very divisive

and people running up sounds signs around the spanish missionaries next questioning why colonialism and so forth and eventually the city remove that portion and placed in our storage and locations last fall. that is a case where there really has been conversation over time and vandalism has been in place. i don't know of any examples in kansas city of by happening. i know of one either depiction of a settler and a native person in column resume has been removed in michigan. there's been a lot of talk about and california, imagery of the mission period. this is also happening at a time where people -- consider the california of the was canonized in 2015 in the midst of all of this. it's been a renewed of questions depictions of there has been a tax -- monuments as well. settlers were moved to

the mission but from their campus so there is a lot of this conversation happening in a few locations today. i haven't heard anything coming from kansas city even though, no one knows more please tell me. i sense here is that the attack and vandalism an independent was more pragmatically a desperate attempt to make some money. they wouldn't if you are talking dollars -- i think it cost 35,000 dollars to replace the sculpture. that seems to be not so much targeting we can i have a depiction of a white pioneer mother so much as i say there is a scholar that nobody is getting any attention to and make a quick buck so there is a range of responses i guess to some of that. other questions? >> i am curious what inspired shooter research pioneer matters for a question. my first book project focused on

people who migratory was on the oregon trail our was funded by the organ trio and most of migration stories. there was a lot of work done in the 1970s 1980s about women and family on the organ trail. but nobody had really followed them to oregon. and so i sought to do that and looking at how much did the general center gender ideals changed from those who came around the trail through their children to their grandchildren. so according to the new premier monument as a way to get out of that question of how they are remembering this later. by 1900, 1920 how are they thinking of what they know about a pioneer mother lives really like. from there i got interested in i wonder if washington oregon and some other places. let's see how similar differently are. i was initially focus on these for 1922 year the 1930s. what are

now called a perennial mother movement. but once i started looking for that might go somewhere and say i'm looking for this culture, got a penalty back and i could not find it. but i going to ask someone do you know how to get to the sculpture i heard one in this town and they would point me musical to this culture over here and i would get there and it would be something different it would be a frontier thing for the 1970s or the 18 90s it was what i had in my head it was a pioneer mother monuments and so over some of the conservatives expand my definition and expand my timeline to not just think about these pioneer matters in the 1920s were what is the contact and where they come from and what happens to them afterwards under ten very part story is a big part of that for me. payment without blot of mystery. >> you historians consider sideshow your who was in clarke appearing at a mother?

>> good questions. his lawyers were probably not during her a pioneer mother, they want to include her just like to include the slave -- direct to be more culturally inclusive in the history to tell until all we can do more inclusive to say or they weren't all right man there was one native women who have the same for our role to play. there was this mixed-raced hard won, an african american slaves, this is the way to be inclusive right. but the pioneer mother label wouldn't work historians say we think about her as a native person, in the actor they want to think about how much the history term with the in history and big huge and see how much control that you have in her life. she making her own decisions russian subject to a man? but 120 years ago that story was different. broken

oregon had their first brian your mother sculpture if you will monuments was put up in 1905 by a group of early feminists. they were starfish promoters for the most part in conjunction with the lowest in court exposition which was a world for help in the port of a 19 or five to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the -- expedition. following the hills over 19 or four in st. louis for the same purpose. a group of suffrage supporters in portland raise the money to put out a sculpture of psycho or, a soccer juror depending on where pronunciation you use. but the plaque, that occasion plaque says to sides could you and the pioneering mother of oregon. they thought she could do double duty, we are celebrating

the risks -- that story everyone wants to tell right now. but there is interest in -- her as sort of a feminist story rights but she is a leader and a strong woman. we can celebrate our for doing that. and there is some racial politics here going on right, i will let can't be pioneer mothers. why pioneer matters will be out here leading. that would bring their femininity into question. a native woman we, know she is not a true woman, or you put up a native women who have the same for our role to play then we get a strong woman role but it is okay for her to be not ladylike because we would expect anything different from anita foreman. they're playing these kinds of games. they see her as sort of turn --.

>> i would like to remember when the doctor press scott will be signing books right outside her auditorium on that secure iran of applause.