Independence and identity on the Victorian-era American frontier

This project investigates how personal and domestic artifacts recovered from two rural Colorado homestead sites of single, middle class women reflect gender identity, and how these reflections subsequently relate to conformance or resistance to traditional and conventional middle class Victorian gender ideals and the cult of domesticity and true womanhood in the context of the Victorian-era American West. This undertaking is accomplished through an analysis of artifact collections from the 1890--1906 Arapahoe County, Colorado homestead (5AH916) of Adelia Wells, and the 1878--1905 Teller County, Colorado homestead (5TL4) of Adeline Hornbek, as well as spatial analyses addressing gendered uses of space at each respective homestead, and an analysis of historical records associated with the life of Adeline Hornbek. Ultimately, this thesis incorporates the results of these analyses to serve as a comparative and interpretive examination of reflections of gender identity and associated conformance or resistance to traditional and conventional middle class Victorian gender ideals and the cult of domesticity and true womanhood in the context of the Victorian-era American West, and Colorado in particular.;It is acknowledged that the analyses of artifact assemblages, uses of space, and available historical records from two homesteads comprises a relatively limited sample size with regard to the number of single females who took advantage of homesteading opportunities in the American West. However, based on the general dearth of known and/or studied collections from homesteads of single, middle class women in the American West, this analysis contributes valuable information to a historically-marginalized and archaeologically-neglected demographic, and provides a basis for future research and analyses of the archaeology of single, economically independent women on the American Frontier.