The Research Study

Infinitely Obscure Lives:

Invisibility of Women at a U.S. Historic Site

“For all the dinners are cooked; the plates and cups washed; the children sent to school and gone out into the world. Nothing remains of it all. All has vanished. No biography or history has a word to say about it. And the novels, without meaning to, inevitably lie.
All these infinitely obscure lives remain to be recorded.”

--A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative study is to create a “disorienting dilemma” (Mezirow & Associates, 1990) which will help students re-examine and critically question their own assumptions about the roles of women and other marginalized groups in the American Old West.

The Site

Fort Smith National Historic Site

Part of the US National Park Service
Located in Fort Smith, Arkansas along the Oklahoma border in Northwest Arkansas.
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and opened as a historic site in 1961
Site of a U.S. fort established in 1817

First Fort 1817-2824
Second Fort 1838-1871
Stop along the Trail of Tears (1831-1847)
Seat of the Federal US Court for Western Arkansas and Indian Territory (1872-1896)

Questions Guiding the Study

Questions guiding the study are:

What role does naming play in the Historic Site exhibits?
Which women are named? Which women remain unnamed?
How are African American and Native American males portrayed? How are those portrayals different than those of women of any race or ethnicity?
How effective is the "feminist" hack tool in guiding critical thinking and responses to the historic site displays?

The Participants

Group I

9 students visited the historic site (Ages 20-58)
5 students completed the reflections
Only 3 students actually posted to the Facebook Page
Demographics:

1 male, 8 females
Asian 1
Caucasian 6
African-American 1
Hispanic 1

Group II

15 students visited the historic site (Ages 19-45)
10 students completed the reflections
Demographics:

4 males, 11 females
Asian 1
Caucasian 12
Hispanic 2

The Instrument

Comments

A.R., Female, Age 24

Exhibit: Fort Smith in Fact and Fiction These posters are one of the first things you see when walking into the museum. I find it interesting that between the two there is only one woman pictured and she is sexualized. Both of these movies came out in the late 60’s. When the movies were produced they had the option to give women a story as well, but from the look of these posters I would say they did not. Exhibit: Women Behind Bars Near the very back of the museum they had this exhibit “Women Behind Bars.” I completely looked over this exhibit at first. If you notice at the top of it is a picture of a group of men. I noticed the men and just assumed that’s what the entire article was over until I went back and actually read the entire thing. Exhibit: Lady Desperado All of the women that are in the exhibits who are named are named because they are criminals. Each one who is named their brother and father are also named. This exhibit is about Belle Starr. It

DS, Male, Age 24

Exhibit: Domestic Life at Fort Smith When observing the exhibits at the National Historic Site, they show how most of the political establishments and arrangements where created by men with little involvement from women. The exhibits in regards to politics where mostly pictures and summaries of men, with a very few exceptions like Florence Hammersly being a deputy clerk. When it comes to the focus of women in the exhibits, I feel like it was mainly based of domestication. A good example of this is the exhibit "Domestic Life at Fort Smith", where it focuses on the lives of the wife's of political leaders in Fort Smith. Exhibit: Music Class I think this photo is relevant to the idea of women being seen in more of a domesticated role during this time. In my opinion, this photo of Chickasaw girls at Bloomfield Academy in a music class shows how women were even educated in more domesticated roles like the arts, instead of politics. Exhibit: Women

GJ, Female, Age 21

Exhibit Detail: John Rogers and his wife Mary On this page are three examples that I found in the exhibits that list the man that is in the picture and only identify the woman as his wife. Luckily this did not happen too much throughout the museum, but it did occur. Exhibit Detail: Music Class In the picture to the right, there are 9 women featured and none of them are identified by name. I thought this was a real shame considering that they were all associated with the Academy that was helping educate Chickasaw girls. The description is also lacking considering the only thing it mentions is the male Reverend who had direction over the school. I feel like the museum missed a prime opportunity in the caption of this photo. Exhibit Detail: Tullahassee Mission, Creek Nation In the picture to the left, the caption only identifies the woman in the picture as William S. Robertson’s wife. Considering they both taught Creek children in the school I believe that th

Infinitely Obscure Lives: Invisibility of Women in a U.S. Historic Site

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