Colorado Women is the first full-length chronicle of the lives, roles, and contributions of women in Colorado from prehistory through the modern day. A national leader in women's rights, Colorado was one of the first states to approve suffrage and the first to elect a woman to its legislature. Nevertheless, only a small fraction of the literature on Colorado history is devoted to women and, of those, most focus on well-known individuals. The experiences of Colorado women differed greatly across economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Marital status, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation colored their worlds and others' perceptions and expectations of them. Each chapter addresses the everyday lives of women in a certain period, placing them in historical context, and is followed by vignettes on women's organizations and notable individuals of the time. Native American, Hispanic, African American, Asian and Anglo women's stories hail from across the state--from the Eastern Plains to the Front Range to the Western Slope--and in their telling a more complete history of Colorado emerges. Colorado Women makes a significant contribution to the discussion of women's presence in Colorado that will be of interest to historians, students, and the general reader interested in Colorado, women's and western history.

Moving portraits of eighteen independent women who helped make Colorado what it is today Remarkable Colorado Women profiles the lives of eighteen of the state’s most important historical figures—women from across Colorado, from many different backgrounds and from various walks of life. Read about Julia Archibald Holmes who became the first white woman to ascend to the summit of Pike’s Peak in 1858; Frances Wisebart Jacobs, the compassionate housewife who devoted her life to supporting Colorado charities in the late nineteenth century; and Mary Elitch Long, founder of the famed pleasure grounds known as Elitch Gardens. The third edition features new biographies of frontier teacher Mabel Barbee Lee, who left a lasting impact on the students of Cripple Creek; Mo-Chi, the first female warrior of the Cheyenne; and Mildred Montague Genevieve "Tweet" Kimball who became the Cattle Queen of Colorado's Front Range in the twentieth century. With enduring strength and compassion, these remarkable women broke through social, cultural, or political barriers to make contributions to society that still have an impact today.

Four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Mildred McClellan Melville, a member of the Denver Woman’s Press Club, predicted that war would come for the United States and that its long arm would reach into the lives of all Americans. And reach it did. Colorado women from every corner of the state enlisted in the military, joined the workforce, and volunteered on the home front. As military women, they served as nurses and in hundreds of noncombat positions. In defense plants they riveted steel, made bullets, inspected bombs, operated cranes, and stored projectiles. They hosted USO canteens, nursed in civilian hospitals, donated blood, drove Red Cross vehicles, and led scrap drives; and they processed hundreds of thousands of forms and reports. Whether or not they worked outside the home, they wholeheartedly participated in a kaleidoscope of activities to support the war effort. In Colorado Women in World War II Gail M. Beaton interweaves nearly eighty oral histories—including interviews, historical studies, newspaper accounts, and organizational records—and historical photographs (many from the interviewees themselves) to shed light on women’s participation in the war, exploring the dangers and triumphs they felt, the nature of their work, and the lasting ways in which the war influenced their lives. Beaton offers a new perspective on World War II—views from field hospitals, small steel companies, ammunition plants, college classrooms, and sugar beet fields—giving a rare look at how the war profoundly transformed the women of this state and will be a compelling new resource for readers, scholars, and students interested in Colorado history and women’s roles in World War II.

Moving portraits of eighteen independent women who helped make Colorado what it is today Remarkable Colorado Women profiles the lives of eighteen of the state’s most important historical figures—women from across Colorado, from many different backgrounds and from various walks of life. Read about Julia Archibald Holmes who became the first white woman to ascend to the summit of Pike’s Peak in 1858; Frances Wisebart Jacobs, the compassionate housewife who devoted her life to supporting Colorado charities in the late nineteenth century; and Mary Elitch Long, founder of the famed pleasure grounds known as Elitch Gardens. The third edition features new biographies of frontier teacher Mabel Barbee Lee, who left a lasting impact on the students of Cripple Creek; Mo-Chi, the first female warrior of the Cheyenne; and Mildred Montague Genevieve "Tweet" Kimball who became the Cattle Queen of Colorado's Front Range in the twentieth century. With enduring strength and compassion, these remarkable women broke through social, cultural, or political barriers to make contributions to society that still have an impact today.

For forty years, A Colorado History has provided a comprehensive and accessible panoramic history of the Centennial State. From the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to contemporary times, this enlarged edition leads readers on an extraordinary exploration of a remarkable place.

Abridged from the original copy, omits numerous pages and the index.