All the Single Ladies Art museum offers glimpse into the lives of women in the West BY LAURA LATZKO Women in the West often didn’t fit the stereotypes of the saloon girl or wholesome wife. They were much more complicated than that. A new exhibition at the Tucson Desert Art Museum explores how single women were able to make great strides and determine their own fate during the 19th century. “All the Single Ladies: Women Pioneers of the American West” will run through December 31. The exhibition is broken down into sections about prostitutes, entrepreneurs, homesteaders, Harvey Girls waitresses, and nuns and missionaries. “We are exploring some of the different ways that single women experienced life in the West and were pioneers,” says curator Alyssa Travis. Women in the West became single for various reasons, including being widowed or orphaned. Women also chose not to marry, because they wanted to retain their independence. Travis says these single women in the West were able to overcome obstacles to run their own businesses, build fortunes and help to make their communities better. “There are all these amazing stories of their resilience, despite the difficulties of being a woman in the U.S. during that period,” Travis says. The exhibition will highlight 18 single women — of various races and ethnicities — who made an impact. Some of them worked in Arizona, like gold prospector, philanthropist and restaurant owner Nellie Cashman; famous Tombstone prostitute Mary Katherine Horony; and Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, an architect who worked with the Fred Harvey Company on hotels, restaurants and structures at the Grand Canyon. Travis says women in the west held a variety of occupations, including physicians, authors, miners, madams and business owners. Some of
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these women held different positions during their lifetimes. Ex-slave Mary Fields managed the day-to-day operations at an abbey and later delivered mail by horseback after moving out West. “I guess she was a rough-andtough woman. She was 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, swore like a sailor, and smoked and drank all the time,” Travis says. Many of the featured women fought for larger causes. Teresa Urrea was a Mexican folk healer who pushed for social reforms and inspired others to rebel against the Mexican government. After being deported, she lived in Arizona on and off throughout her life. Donaldina Cameron, an immigrant from New Zealand who lived in California, helped to educate, free and fight for the rights of Chinese girls who were
forced to come to the United States to serve as prostitutes. With the exhibition, Travis wanted to show the various paths for female pioneers. Some single women from the West, for example, made a difference while living in eastern states. “Usually when you think The Tucson Desert of a pioneer, you have this Art Museum’s “All white Swedish woman in the Single Ladies: your mind that you see on a Women Pioneers of homestead, maybe in fields the American West” exhibit will highlight of wheat. I wanted to break the accomplishments that stereotype and redeof single women in fine the idea of a pioneer,” the West such as mail carrier Mary Fields. Travis says. She says women in the West often had freedoms their counterparts in the eastern states didn’t have. “In the cities back cast, there were Victorian social norms that really did limit a woman’s flexibility to go into different roles. If you were of a certain income level, you were expected to be a wife and a mother and take care of your children. If you were lower class, you probably did work, but you also had those requirements at home, too,” Travis says. “But in the West, there was a shortage of women in the mid-1800s and earlier, as people were moving
The Tucson Desert Art Museum’s exhibition “All the Single Ladies: Women Pioneers of the American West” spotlights single women in the West, such as Calamity Jane. (Photos courtesy of Tucson Desert Art Museum)
West. So, women did have more economic opportunities. Usually, laws in the West were more pro-woman. It was easier to get divorced. There were property rights for women, which was revolutionary. Women got to vote earlier in the West.” Travis says women were also able to earn better salaries in domestic roles in the West and secure loans for businesses such as boarding houses. Travis did six months of research, using books, newspapers and scholarly articles to put together the exhibition. The biggest challenge was finding information on the featured women. Occasionally, she found an interesting woman but there wasn’t enough information to include her. Many of the women featured in the display weren’t single all of their lives,
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What: “All the Single Ladies: Women Pioneers of the American West” When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays to Fridays, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays through December 31 Where: Tucson Desert Art Museum, 7000 E. Tanque Verde Road Cost: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students, $4 for youth Info: 202-3888, tucsondart.org www.LovinLife.com
