Swept up in the optimism of the 1910s, Lily Stearns settled with her four children on a promising homestead in northeastern Montana, where she found her fate conscribed by extreme weather and the limits of her endurance. This richly illustrated virtual exhibition tells the story of one participant in the largest homestead boom in US history, revealing the erratic fortunes of farm life reflected in the abundant economic, political, and personal uncertainties of the era.

Introduction
About the Exhibition
Locating
Building
Fighting
Moving On
Lily’s Letters
Further Reading
This exhibition is licensed CC BY 4.0 International, 2020 Sara Gregg. This refers only to the text and does not include image rights. For copyright information on the above images, please click here.

Gregg, Sara M. “American Land Rush: ‘A Lonely Homesteader’ Searches for Security in the Montana Homestead Boom.” Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2020, no. 3. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8996.

ISSN 2198-7696 Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions

Download PDF - 18.78 MB
The Environment & Society Portal is a project of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, a joint initiative of LMU Munich and the Deutsches Museum. The center is supported by a grant from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research. Read more about the Portal in English and in German.