Frontier Fort Women: Keeping Up Appearances

The objective of this presentation is to answer six questions concerning the life of Army wives who ventured west during the expansion of the United States after the Civil War. The questions are: Who were the women on Army posts? What did women at Army posts do? What was socially acceptable during this period of time? How did women during this period “dress for success”? What were the benefits of the “womanly” arts and how did they contribute to Western expansion?

During the latter part of the 19th century the U.S. Army established frontier posts along the major trails leading to the west to deter Indian attacks and aid pioneer travelers. The roles of women on the frontier posts were minimized to some extent, but historically no less important than the roles of men. Women seen on these posts were laundresses, housemaids and servants, hospital matrons, school teachers and officers’ wives. This presentation will explore the roles of women on frontier forts during the latter part of the 1860s including their purpose on a frontier fort; their social and recreational activities; their ingenuity in dealing with unknown factors within the social dictates of the period; and their contributions to western expansion.

Dr. Kathleen Corpus joined the Shepherd University faculty as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Business and Family & Consumer Sciences in August 2008.  Her doctorate is in Consumer Economics from Kansas State University and she spent the last 11 years as an administrator of an adult education program at Dodge City Community College in Dodge City, Kansas. For the past 13 years she has also served as a volunteer historic interpreter at Fort Larned National Historic Site in Kansas where she and her husband were named Volunteers of the Year for 2007.  She has done extensive research on the role of women during the 19th century post Civil War period as well as Victorian dress, women's contribution to literacy and education, and social acceptance of women at forts along U.S. Western trails.