List of names by achievements: The arts (actor, television, director) -- Anthropologists -- Architects -- Artists (painters, sculptors) -- Banking and business -- Directors and managers -- Education -- Firefighters -- Judicial and legal -- Music -- Political and government -- Publishers, writers, journalists -- Science (medicine) -- Science (geology, engineering) -- Sports -- Volunteer activists.
Colorado Women is the first full-length chronicle of the lives, roles, and contributions of women in Colorado from prehistory through the modern day. A national leader in women's rights, Colorado was one of the first states to approve suffrage and the first to elect a woman to its legislature. Nevertheless, only a small fraction of the literature on Colorado history is devoted to women and, of those, most focus on well-known individuals. The experiences of Colorado women differed greatly across economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Marital status, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation colored their worlds and others' perceptions and expectations of them. Each chapter addresses the everyday lives of women in a certain period, placing them in historical context, and is followed by vignettes on women's organizations and notable individuals of the time. Native American, Hispanic, African American, Asian and Anglo women's stories hail from across the state--from the Eastern Plains to the Front Range to the Western Slope--and in their telling a more complete history of Colorado emerges. Colorado Women makes a significant contribution to the discussion of women's presence in Colorado that will be of interest to historians, students, and the general reader interested in Colorado, women's and western history.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical” (Roxane Gay) epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina “Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you’re swimming under a big, sparkling night sky.”—Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You A PHENOMENAL BOOK CLUB PICK AND AN AUDACIOUS BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Book Riot There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories. Luz “Little Light” Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors’ origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion. Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love—filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz. LONGLISTED FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION
The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame was founded in 1985, by a group of women who were concerned that both historic and contemporary women who shared foresight, vision, enthusiasm, and the power of accomplishment were not receiving appropriate acknowledgment. Fearful that splendid achievements would be forgotten, they wished to honor women who, during their lifetime, made a significant contribution to Colorado as a state or territory. It is the hope of the founders that by so honoring Colorado's women of consequence, their spirits might inspire future generations.In the first decade since the founding, fifty-nine women were selected for induction. Although historians habitually ignored the vital part that women played in the building of the West, in actuality these women's lives contain plots and characters that would enliven the most gripping novels. We have saints, like Frances Wisebart Jacobs and the theatrical angel Helen Bonfils; activists such as Josephine Roche and Rachel Noel; a scientific genius in Florence Sabin; and visionaries like Dana Crawford. There are tragedies, as with the Tabor wives, and the lighter-hearted tales of Mary Elitch Long and Mary Coyle Chase.Women of Consequence provides a bonanza of role models who opened new frontiers for women in so many fields, including business, journalism and newspaper publishing, science and medicine, law, politics, education, charity work, botany and even taxidermy. These stories are sure to inspire, delight, and instruct readers throughout Colorado, from young adults to senior citizens, whether they've lived here all their lives or moved here recently.
What do Louise Sneed Hill, May Bonfils Stanton, Justina L. Ford, Helen Bonfils, Mary Coyle Chase, and Caroline Bancroft have in common? They are all a vital part of Colorado's history--and no one has ever written a book-length biography about any of them. While some of the names will be more familiar than others to Colorado residents, all of the women will come to live for the readers of this exciting book. Whether you are interested in the first black female physician licensed in Colorado, the ruler of Denver's social elite, the battling Bonfils sisters, the woman who brought the first Pulitzer Prize for drama to Colorado, or the self-proclaimed grande dame of Colorado history, you will find it all here. Marilyn Riley has combined some of the most fascinating (and sometimes lesser known) of Colorado's women. This is a must read for those interested in Colorado history, women's history, and in reading stories about interesting and dynamic individuals.
Since the Pikes Peak gold rush in the mid-nineteenth century, women have gone into the mountains of Colorado to hike, climb, ski, homestead, botanize, act as guides, practice medicine, and meet a variety of other challenges, whether for sport or for livelihood. Janet Robertson recounts their exploits in a lively, well-illustrated book that measures up to its title, The Magnificent Mountain Women. Arlene Blum provides a new introduction to this edition.
Four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Mildred McClellan Melville, a member of the Denver Woman’s Press Club, predicted that war would come for the United States and that its long arm would reach into the lives of all Americans. And reach it did. Colorado women from every corner of the state enlisted in the military, joined the workforce, and volunteered on the home front. As military women, they served as nurses and in hundreds of noncombat positions. In defense plants they riveted steel, made bullets, inspected bombs, operated cranes, and stored projectiles. They hosted USO canteens, nursed in civilian hospitals, donated blood, drove Red Cross vehicles, and led scrap drives; and they processed hundreds of thousands of forms and reports. Whether or not they worked outside the home, they wholeheartedly participated in a kaleidoscope of activities to support the war effort. In Colorado Women in World War II Gail M. Beaton interweaves nearly eighty oral histories—including interviews, historical studies, newspaper accounts, and organizational records—and historical photographs (many from the interviewees themselves) to shed light on women’s participation in the war, exploring the dangers and triumphs they felt, the nature of their work, and the lasting ways in which the war influenced their lives. Beaton offers a new perspective on World War II—views from field hospitals, small steel companies, ammunition plants, college classrooms, and sugar beet fields—giving a rare look at how the war profoundly transformed the women of this state and will be a compelling new resource for readers, scholars, and students interested in Colorado history and women’s roles in World War II.
It's 1863 and 10-year-old Emmy Blue Hatchett has been told by her father that soon their family will leave their farm, family, and friends in Illinois, and travel west to a new home in Colorado. It's difficult leaving family and friends behind. They might not see one another ever again. When Emmy's grandmother comes to say goodbye, she gives Emmy a special gift to keep her occupied on the trip. The journey by wagon train is long and full of hardships. But the Hatchetts persevere and reach their destination in Colorado, ready to start their new life.
Throughout the Gold Rush years and beyond, prostitution grew and flourished within the mining camps, small towns, and cities of nineteenth-century Colorado. Whether escaping a bad home life, lured by false advertising, or seeking to subsidize their income, thousands of women chose or were forced to enter an industry where they faced segregation and persecution, fines and jailing, and battled the hazards of their profession. Some dreamed of escape through marriage or retirement, and some became infamous and even successful, but more often found relief only in death. An integral part of western history, the stories of these women continue to fascinate readers and captivate the minds of historians today. The Centennial State had its share of working girls and madams like Mattie Silks and Jennie Rogers who remain notorious celebrities in the annals of history, but Collins also includes the stories of lesser-known women whose roles in this illicit trade help shape our understanding of the American West.
