Prairie Madonna: A Corner of the Earth — Wyman, Marlena

Early prairie women’s lives are often romanticized in books and films, but in many instances the truth was very different.

In log cabins and sod shacks, fifty and even one hundred miles from the railways are thousands of brave women living on the western prairies, bearing the cross of motherhood without proper care and giving the best of their lives in the struggle to win a corner of the earth which they and their families may call home

Painting inspired by a quote from the front page of The Grain Growers Guide, 27 November 1912, and photograph of Pauline, friend of artist’s paternal grandmother, Lily Wyman [1916].Collection of the artist