A Settler's Year:
Pioneer Life Through The Seasons
A Settler's Year: Pioneer Life Through The Seasons provides a rare glimpse into the lives of early immigrants to the Midwest. Evocative photographs taken at Old World Wisconsin, the country’s largest outdoor museum of rural life, lushly illustrate stories woven by historian, novelist, and poet Kathleen Ernst and compelling firsthand accounts left by the settlers.
Here we discover the challenges and triumphs found in the seasonal rhythms of rural life in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As we turn the pages— traveling from sprawling farm to tidy crossroads village and from cramped and smoky cabins to gracious, well-furnished homes— we experience the back-straining chores, cherished folk traditions, annual celebrations, and indomitable spirit that comprised pioneer life.
At its heart A Settler’s Year is about people dreaming of, searching for, and creating a new home in a new land. This moving book transports us back to the pioneer era and inspires us to explore the stories found on our own family trees.
This book features the beautiful photographs of Loyd Heath, and is available in hardcover and e-book versions. See a list of booksellers that it can be ordered from below.
Related Blog Posts
Why A Settler’s Year?
As the launch date for A Settler’s Year: Pioneer Life Through The Seasons approaches, I’ve been thinking about the journey I’ve taken with this book. Why did I spend two years living with this project, and why was I confident that readers would care?
The Ones Left Behind
Scott and I recently spent two weeks in Norway (lucky us!) and I thought a lot about the conditions that prompted so many people to leave in the 1800s.
Immigrants And The Erie Canal
When thinking about the journey undertaken by 19th-century European immigrants, my mind instinctively conjures pictures of life aboard ships crossing the Atlantic. But when travelers bound for the Upper Midwest reached North America, their journey was far from over. Many traveled to Albany and boarded a boat headed west on the Erie Canal.
Old World Wisconsin: A Photographer’s Paradise
Most of the photographs in Kathleen Ernst’s latest book A Settler’s Year: Pioneer Life Through the Seasons were taken by me at Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor living history museum located in Eagle, Wisconsin.
Immigrant Trunks
A Settler’s Year: Pioneer Life Through the Seasons focuses primarily on newcomers’ experience after reaching their destination. But many of the European immigrants’ diaries, letters, and reminiscences included poignant descriptions of their journey from old world to new.
Immigrant Children
Immigrating as an adult in the 19th century would have been challenging enough. Can you imagine what the trip might have been like for a young child? Or for a parent needing to keep a toddler safe—or an infant relatively clean and comfortable—during the journey?
Precious Papers
A museum curator’s job includes studying, preserving, and interpreting historical objects. When I worked at Old World Wisconsin I thought a lot about objects immigrants used in their New World homes. As I was writing A Settler’s Year, I thought a lot about the things immigrants chose to carry on their journey.
Where to buy the book
A Settler's Year is available from these and other booksellers as a 200 page hardcover and in digital e-book versions.
Author signed and personalized trade paperback copies can be also requested through our Contact Us Form.
