Dakotagirl

Next up from Beyond Little House is Dr. Amy Mattson Lauters. I have not had the pleasure of meeting Amy in person or speaking with her, but I hope to do just that in 2010 at the Laurapalooza to be held in Mankato, MN. The following is from the Beyond Little House Blog/Website.

Amy Mattson Lauters, Ph.D., is author of The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, a compendium of Rose’s magazine articles from 1917 through 1968. Her interest in Laura sprouted in childhood, when she learned her grandmother was friends with Laura’s cousin Ruby Martin. “As a child I had a hard time figuring out why a little girl like Laura had such an ‘old’ cousin,” she says now. But that marked a revelation for young Amy: Laura Ingalls was real. A professor of journalism at the Minnesota State University at Mankato, Dr. Lauters will release More Than a Farmer’s Wife: American Farm Women’s Voices, 1910-1960 in June 2009; her next project is a biography of Rose Wilder Lane.

Brief resume of Dr. Lauters:

Sarah Uthoff

The next few posts will spotlight the experts from “Beyond Little House“. BLH is a new blog/website to help guide LIW fans to information concerning Laura Ingalls Wilder.

First is Iowa’s own Sarah Uthoff:

It all started a long time ago in a little white house made of boards that I discovered Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. Before anyone knew what was happening, I was “playing Laura,” visiting the Laura sites, and learning how to do the things Laura did around her family farm. In the words of my cousin, “Laura took over her life and everybody’s who knew her.”

When I grew up, I got my degree in history education, got actively involved with living history and historic foodways, and began to research the history around Laura Ingalls Wilder.

These previous paragraphs come from the web site of Iowa native Sarah Uthoff. Sarah’s research of Laura Ingalls Wilder is enough to get excited about, but there is so much more to Sarah and her research.

Sarah as Laura Ingalls Wilder

If there is such a thing as a researcher’s researcher, Sarah is just that. A visit to her web site and blog is a history lesson on Laura Ingalls Wilder, Iowa history, historic cookbooks, one room schools and more than I can discuss on a blog. Sarah’s LIW presentations are the icing on the cake. She shares her knowledge with anyone who cares to read her blog and web site and to me that is a trait a true LIW inspired researcher.

Read Sarah blog here and her web site here. Be warned, you will be there for quite a while

Thanks Sarah!

I recently won a collection of Missouri Ruralists and have had loads of fun looking through them and scanning the covers and the articles by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Here is the article from the February 1, 1922 issue. The subject concerns the light within us and judging others by the notion of right and wrong that is inside ourselves.
The following is a transcribed version of the article.

As a Farm Woman Thinks
BY MRS. A. J. WILDER

A WONDERFUL way has been invented to transform a scene on the stage, completely changing the apparent surroundings of the actors and their costumes without moving an article. The change is made in an instant. By an arrangement of light and colors the scenes are so painted that with a red light thrown upon them, certain parts come into view while other parts remain invisible. By changing a switch and throwing a blue light upon the scene, what has been visible disappears and things, unseen before appear, completely changing the appearance of the stage.

This late achievement of science is a good illustration of a fact we all know but so easily forget or overlook-that things and persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them” from our’ own minds.

When we are down-hearted and discouraged, we speak of looking at the world thru blue glasses; nothing looks the same to us; our family and friends do not appear the same; our home and work show in the darkest colors. But when we are happy, we see things in a brighter light and everything is transformed.

How unconsciously we judge others by the light that is within our­selves, condemning or approving them by our own conception of right and wrong, honor and dishonor! We show by our judgment just what the light within us is.

What we see is always affected by the light in which we look at it so that no two persons see people and things alike. What we see and how we see depends upon the nature of our light.

A quotation, the origin of which I have forgotten, lingers in my mind: “You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window thru which you must see the world.”

Missouri Ruralist February 1, 1922

Before Garth Williams began drawing the wonderful Little House illustrations that we love so much, he journeyed to Mansfield, Missouri to meet with Laura and Almanzo. Along the way he drove through the Southern Appalachians and he  paid great detail to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He used the restored cabins and outbuildings for guidance and inspiration in drawing the cabins in the LH books.

The National Park Service has restored numerous log cabins and farm outbuildings in the Smokies. This assures future generations will enjoy and learn about how things used to be.

Restored cabin in the Great Smokies

Check out the link below for more information on the preservation of old farmsteads and cabins in the park.
http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/historicbuildings.htm

Previous visitors are probably surprised when opening Dakotagirl. The look is totally different from the old site. I decided to merge the old site any my blog into one. It was getting too tedious trying to maintain both and I decided to make things a little easier for myself.

I will be merging my files and images from the old dakotagirl site and the prairie wire blog over the next few weeks. Check back for updates.

Thanks for viewing!