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MYTHIC WOMEN OF THE WEST

Baby Doe Tabor

Annie Oakley

Dr. Justina Ford

Madame CJ Walker

Owl Woman

Polly Pry

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THE ORIGINS OF “MOLLY”�

FICTION STRANGER THAN TRUTH

Gene Fowler

Caroline Bancroft

THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN

THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN MOVIE

MEET MARGARET BROWN

OPTIONAL READING

Kristen Iversen, Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth

Richard Etulain, Re-Imagining the Modern American West

Elliott West, The Contested Plains

Patricia Nelson Limerick, Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West.

Anne F. Hyde, Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860

Virginia Scharff and Carolyn Brucken, Home Lands: How Women Made the West

A’lelia Bundles, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker

Quintard Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990

Joyce B. Lohse, Justina Ford: Medical Pioneer; Unsinkable: The Molly Brown Story

Madupe Labode, “A Carnival for a Cathedral: The 1906 Carnival of Nations in Denver,” Colorado Heritage (Autumn 2008)

Gene Fowler, Timber Line

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT QUESTIONS

“How does popular culture play a role in biographies?”
“Why were the women left out of popular representations of Western history?”
“Do myths about the West and the roles of women hold up after careful examination?”
“What are the differences between biography and history?”
“How were Anglo-American, Latino, and Native American gender roles similar, and in what ways were they different?”
“How can we use newspapers to learn about our past?”
“How do we teach about difficult issues—such as racism, classism, and genocide—in Western history?”