Land of Laura: the Podcast about Laura Ingalls Wilder

Could you teach an entire US History course using only materials from the Little House book series and the life of its author, Laura Ingalls Wilder?Historian Michelle McClellan, PhD, taught US History, women's history, and the history of medicine to all levels of college students for many years. As an avid Little House fan, in the classroom — particularly with small, honors-level classes —she sometimes found herself using examples from the Little House books and Laura Ingalls Wilder's life to illustrate various historical points to her students. When she did, she noticed, her students perked up. They became more engaged. They became more engaged, she realized, because SHE was engaged.That started her thinking: could she design an entire American History course around the Little House books and Laura Ingalls Wilder? Why yes. Yes she could.In this episode of Land of Laura, the first of two parts, Dr. McClellan lays out just how she would design that American History course. Using lenses of agriculture, gender, race, ethnicity, westward expansion, government oversight, railroads and more, she shows how over a century of information and experience related to Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House book series can tell the story of American history.

The question has puzzled researchers for years: what happened with the baby Rose Wilder Lane lost early in her marriage to Gillette Lane? We first heard from Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer Sallie Ketcham back on episode 23 talking about Rose Wilder Lane’s ghostwriting. But she's also the researcher who couldn't stop wondering what exactly happened with the pregnancy Rose had mentioned obliquely over the course of her life. When was Rose pregnant? When did she lose the baby? And where? Sallie uncovered what no one else could. She's on Land of Laura now to talk about what she learned about this part of Rose's life, as well as the research process that led to it. In a bonus episode available on the Land of Laura Patreon, Sallie shares the heavy influence of fairy tales on the writing of Little House in the Big Woods, and the elements of fairy tales that both Laura and Rose relied on to create that book. patreon.com/landoflaurahttps://www.routledge.com/Laura-Ingalls-Wilder-American-Writer-on-the-Prairie/Ketcham/p/book/9780415820202https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/laura-ingalls-wilder-and-the-wolves/https://kellykferguson.substack.comhttps://naasr.org/products/children-of-ararathttps://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-50-2/it-was-in-armenia-that-i-learned-fear-rose-wilder-lane-and-the-armenian-genocide/sdh-5002-01.pdf

After attending the very first LauraPalooza conference in 2010 put on by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, researcher and educator Susan Thurlow prepared a project for the next conference in 2012. Her topic: Dr. George Tann, an African-American character from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 1935 book Little House on the Prairie. As a parent of several African American and Afro-Caribbean children, Susan made this a family project, involving several of her children in the creation of a biographical booklet Dr. George Tann: Black Frontier Physician. With the new Netflix TV show out in 2026, Dr. Tann is again at the forefront of Little House conversation. But what do we really know about his real life? Susan has continued to study Dr. Tann, and now she's in the Land of Laura studio to tell us all about him.Mentioned in this episode:Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum https://www.cspm.org/Rockledge Ranch Historic Site https://rockledgeranch.com/Doctor Who Fetched the Family Dog by Eileen Miles Charbo (out of print) https://www.abebooks.com/9789996289255/Doctor-Fetched-Family-Dog-Story-9996289257/plpSarah Uthoff of Trundlebed Tales https://www.trundlebedtales.com/index.html"Dr. Tann, a Pioneer Physician and Neighbor to the Ingalls" on the official Little House on the Prairie site https://littlehouseontheprairie.com/dr-george-a-tann-pioneer-physician-and-neighbor-to-the-ingalls/The All-White World of Children's Books by Nancy Larrick (search the Internet for the PDF)Researcher Nancy Cleaveland pioneergirl.comDiploma Mill by David Alan Johnson https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2017/diploma-mill/

Land of Laura, the podcast about all things Laura Ingalls Wilder, is launching a Patreon. Joining the Land of Laura Patreon community helps support the podcast we all love. With levels ranging from free to however much you want to pay, every member can decide their own level of support. www.patreon.com/landoflaura

Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in Mansfield, Missouri from 1894 until her death in 1957. Today, the farmhouse she and her husband, Almanzo, built, as well as the stone cottage known as the Rock House that their daughter Rose Wilder Lane designed and had built for them, are all part of the homesite in Mansfield. Collectively, the homesite is known by the name Laura gave it: Rocky Ridge Farm. Visitors to Rocky Ridge can tour the farmhouse, the Rock House, and a museum that houses an impressive collection of Wilder-related artifacts, including Pa’s fiddle – the actual instrument Charles Ingalls played for his family that we all read about in the Little House books.Mansfield native Michelle Underwood has been a docent at Rocky Ridge since 2018, shortly after she moved back to her hometown. In 2023 Michelle released LAURA INGALLS WILDER'S ROCKY RIDGE FARM, a guidebook to the homesite that details everything a tourist might see at Rocky Ridge. In this episode, Land of Laura talks to Michelle about her book, her job, and what it’s like to be behind the scenes at Laura’s Rocky Ridge.https://www.amazon.ca/Laura-Ingalls-Wilders-Rocky-Ridge/dp/B0CHL5FG25https://lauraingallswilderhome.com/