Isolation

I was trying to find some good images of homesteading to compare with the isolation some may be feeling currently. Since I am working in isolation it is a bit more challenging, although I do have online connection to some of the Historical Society’s collections.

Early homesteaders might find themselves isolated for months at a time in the winter, and even fair weather often meant hard work, getting food and supplies to weather winter, and prove up. Imagine being in a small one room cabin with spouse and kids. Heat comes from a woodstove, or fireplace, which also doubles for cooking and heating water. No indoor plumbing, a root cellar for perishables. No wifi. Sometimes the only book might be a Bible.

Not a homesteader but a seeker of gold, Peter Tofft painted an ideal scene of himself hunkered down by the fire, reading. Cozy view, though if you look you will see corner of bed at right and table, food and clothing suspended from ceiling and walls to avoid nesting and nibbling of mice and other varmints. That’s not a TV over the fireplace, but a painting, connection to others is through books or imagination, occasional trips to town for necessities, mail, and news.

My Cabin, Montana, 1866, by Peter Tofft, watercolor, MHS 1996.89.01