Pioneer Mother Monuments: Constructing Cultural Memory by Cynthia Culver Prescott (review)

Pioneer Mother Monuments: Constructing Cultural Memory is an important addition to the literature on the history of monuments commemorating racial violence, and the first book-length study to relate this specifically to pioneer monuments. In her comparison of pioneer mother monuments constructed in the United States from 1890 to the present, Prescott argues that while opponents are quick to tear down Confederate monuments in the South, pioneer commemoration also "enshrine[s] white supremacy" (282) and "ignores the conquest of indigenous peoples, the meeting of diverse cultures in the region, and women as agents rather than just symbols of white civilization" (10). These monuments allow particular regions to feel more connected to the wider narrative of manifest destiny and westward expansion, which Americans are "hesitant to question" (289). Prescott draws on the archival collections of donors, artists, and public media to track the competing interests that go into these monuments' production and interpretation.

According to Prescott, the image of the white pioneer woman—sometimes portrayed alone and sometimes within the family—"reveals how Americans used gendered imagery and nostalgic portrayals of the family unit to erase persistent ethnic and racial inequality from their collective memory" (15). These monuments also reflect anxieties surrounding changing gender roles, as with the monuments depicting a more docile Prairie Madonna erected as part of the gendered backlash following World War I. Her later chapters are particularly strong as she examines regional impacts on recent monuments, and their controversies, celebrations, and connections to heritage tourism and identity. The book is accompanied by a website mapping these and additional monuments for further comparison.

Readers of Great Plains Quarterly will be interested in this book as it addresses the enduring influence of Bryant Baker's Pioneer Woman monument in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and includes numerous historical and current examples from other Plains states. This work is valuable for researchers in both US history and also art history, as Prescott aligns these monuments with art historical trends. Scholars of Mormon history will especially appreciate her chapter examining the patriarchal values, and tensions between exceptionalism and assimilation, depicted in Mormon pioneer monuments from 1890 to the present. The text is written in a jargon-free style that will appeal to the general public. The breadth of examples is its strength, which assists the reader in charting changes over time. Future studies would benefit from using this book and the website to select sites of interest for more in-depth exploration into how the ideologies behind monument creation and interpretation are connected to regional identity and politics.