The Pioneer Mother (Eugene, Oregon)

Pioneer Mother

The sculpture in 2007
Artist Alexander Phimister Proctor
Year 1932
Type Sculpture
Material Bronze
Subject The mother of an Oregonian pioneer
Location Eugene, Oregon, United States
44°02′39″N 123°04′33″W / 44.04416°N 123.07579°WCoordinates: 44°02′39″N 123°04′33″W / 44.04416°N 123.07579°W

The Pioneer Mother is a sculpture located on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon. Burt Barker donated the nine-foot bronze sculpture and pink granite base, created by artist Alexander Phimister Proctor, to the university. Barker’s daughter, Barbara Barker, had the honor of debuting debuted to a public gathering of hundreds on May 7, 1932 during Junior Week and Mother’s Day festivities.

Creation and design

The start for Pioneer Mother began with Barker, then Vice-President of the University of Oregon, who had the initial idea to represent the pioneer mothers on campus and financial resources to present this work as a gift to the state board of education.[1] He commissioned Proctor to do the work in 1927 as Proctor had already completed The Pioneer. For this sculpture, the model was Barker’s own mother, Elvira Brown Barker who crossed the plains of Oregon in 1847.[2]

In design, The Pioneer Mother conveys a later point in life, after the trails of the journey westward had long been completed. When Barker made the news of his gift public, he described what set this sculpture apart, “[o]thers have perpetuated the struggles of the pioneer mother; I want to perpetuate the peace which followed her struggles.”[3] This $30,000 six-foot tall bronze lady sits within a straight-backed chair atop a base of pink granite. Her body is in repose with a Bible upon her lap. The clear lines and massing of the base further enhance the stationary suggestion. Her journey, as represented in the bronze bas-relief panels on the west and east sides of the base, is done and she is firmly rooted in her new home. Her style, as seen in her hair arrangement and cut of her dress, are simple, she is the figure of all pioneer mothers in the twilight of their years.

Location

It was the original intent that her location to be amidst the University of Oregon campus. Barker stated in his address as her unveiling that “[i]t has been placed on the campus of the University of Oregon…with the hope that so placed in the midst of the students and their activities, it may tell its story as a work of art and become a strong factor in implanting the love of the beautiful in the lives of the students as they go in and out before it.”[1]

As to her exact location, an Old Oregon describes her placement thus,

“[h]er site was not chosen until a cardboard facsimile of the statue was placed at various positions on the campus. After the entire women's quadrangle was changed, the Mother was placed in the center, close enough to several paths so she can catch bits of University chatter.”[2]

She faces north, which many have noted through the years, makes her quite difficult to photograph. In relation to the Pioneer, she is about one hundred yards away, and by the appearance of maps she is quite close, if not exactly due south of him. The primary sources consulted, however, give no indication that this was done with the intention they ‘face each other’ as the popular notion today insists. Nor did Johnson Hall block their line of sight, for the building came first and the sculptures afterward. Pioneer Mother was placed within her own Women’s Quad, according to its own balanced arrangement.

Recognizing the Pioneer Mothers

By the start of the twentieth century, the general public west of the Mississippi was beginning to recognize and even promote the acknowledgement of the efforts of the pioneer mothers. Headlines in Oregon read “Would Build Monument to the Pioneer Mother of Oregon: Declares Names of Wives and Mothers of the Pioneers Are Being Forgotten, When They Should Be Preserved and Revered” and “Heroic Mothers of Pioneer Days.” This movement was to recognize the pivotal players in the establishment of the west frontier. It was a personal connection of the decedents to their ancestors. In giving the Pioneer Mother, Barker spoke, “I want to perpetuate the peace which followed her struggles; I want to perpetuate the spirit which made the adventure possible; I want to recall her as I recall my mother, Elvira Brown Barker.”[2] In this way, the endeavors and contributions of the pioneer mothers would not be forgotten.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Pioneer Statue Dedicated Here,” Eugene Register Guard, May 8, 1932.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “‘Campus Coin Collector’,” Old Oregon, 29, no. 9, June 1948. In University Digital Archives: Old Oregon (1919-1993), https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu /xmlui/handle/1794/13158 (accessed October 28, 2013).
  3. ↑ “Vice-President Barker Gives Statue of Pioneer Mother,” Old Oregon, 12, no. 9, June 1930. In University Digital Archives: Old Oregon (1919-1993), https://scholarsbank. uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/13158 (accessed October 28, 2013).

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