In the late 19th century, the United States industrialized. The Western frontier became more accessible as railroads connected the coastlines. The West became less of a place of myth and more of a place of accessibility to those who wanted new opportunities. However, the West was still wild, and a Gilded Age-era woman should not have had to face it alone. A truly western woman faced many contradictions. She needed to be domestic and pure enough to raise a family, but strong enough to handle whatever the Wild West handed her. A few women, like Martha Maxwell, a female hunter and taxidermist from the mid-19th century, tried to portray themselves this way but failed. Eventually, a woman came along who embraced these contradictions: Annie Oakley. …show more content…
Maxwell was a successful taxidermist who invented methods and arrangements later taxidermists used in a widespread fashion. However, the world was not quite ready for a woman like Maxwell. The public saw her as too violent and too smart., which, according to Laura Browder, author of the book, Her Best Shot, was an “uncomfortable” combination to the people of the 1860s and 1870s. Martha Maxwell soon faded from view, which allowed another woman to come to the stage and try to convince society that she could be both a genteel western woman and a …show more content…
The family was poor and only a few years after Jacob died, Oakley’s mother sent her to the county poor farm, also known as the Infirmary. Her life for the next five years was filled with hardship. A couple, whose names are not known, took her home. Glenda Riley, the author of Oakley’s autobiography, The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley, the couple treated her “like a slave” and physically abused her. She eventually made the decision to run away from the couple and made her way back home to her mother and remaining siblings. Oakley decided to use her hunting and trapping skills to help her family. Glenda Riley argued that the income Oakley brought in from selling game and furs became Oakley’s “family’s