Pioneer Mother, (sculpture).

Pioneer Mother, (sculpture).

Proctor, A. Phimister, 1862-1950, sculptor.

Fonderia Bruno, founder.

Wight & Wight, landscape architect.

Pioneer Mother, (sculpture).

Pioneer Mother Memorial, (sculpture).

1923-1927. Dedicated Nov. 11, 1927.

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: bronze; Base: Minnesota pearl pink granite and concrete.

Sculpture: approx. H. 9 ft. W. 16 ft.; Base: approx. 4 x 37 x 20 ft.

(On east side of figure group:) A. PHIMISTER PROCTOR SCULPTOR 1927 (copyright symbol) (South side of base:) WHITHER THOU (East side of base:) GOEST I WILL GO WHERE THOU LODGEST I WILL (North side of base:) LODGE THY PEOPLE (West side of base:) SHALL BE MY PEOPLE AND THY GOD MY GOD (On plaque on south side of base:) PRESENTED TO THE/PEOPLE OF KANSAS CITY/BY/HOWARD VANDERSLICE/***/TO COMMEMORATE/THE PIONEER MOTHER/WHO WITH UNFALTERING TRUST/IN GOD SUFFERED THE HARDSHIP/OF THE UNKNOWN WEST/TO PREPARE FOR US A HOMELAND/OF PEACE AND PLENTY/A. PHIMISTER PROCTOR SCULPTOR MCMXXVII signed

A female figure holding a baby rides side saddle on the first of two horses. Her cape blows in the wind, and her sun bonnet is flung over her shoulder. She cradles a small baby in her proper right arm. Walking on her proper right is a male figure holding the reins of her horse in his proper right hand and a flintlock rifle in his proper left hand. He is clean-shaven and dressed in fringed buckskins and high boots. A pack horse follows behind the first horse. Both horses have saddle bags and their heads are down. An older male figure walks behind and on the proper left side of the female. He holds the reins of the pack horse and a whip in his proper right hand. He carries a flintlock rifle over his proper left shoulder. There is a flintlock pistol under his proper left elbow, a cartridge box on his proper left hip, and a powder horn on his proper right hip. He is bearded, wears a coonskin cap, fringed buckskins, and moccasins.

Portrait group -- Family -- Mother & Child

Portrait male -- Vanderslice, Daniel -- Full length

Portrait male -- Vanderslice, Thomas J. -- Full length

Portrait male -- Vanderslice, Howard -- Child

History -- United States -- Westward Expansion

Outdoor Sculpture -- Missouri -- Kansas City

Administered by City of Kansas City, Missouri, Department of Parks and Recreation, Planning Services Division, 4600 East 63rd Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64130

Located Penn Valley Park, 28th and Wyandotte, Kansas City, Missouri

The sculpture was donated by Howard Vanderslice and the figures depicted in the sculpture are his family. Depicted are Major Daniel Vanderslice, a veteran of Indian wars and an appointed agent to tribes in Missouri; his son Thomas J. Vanderslice with his wife and infant son, Howard Vanderslice, ca. 1853.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Missouri, Kansas City survey, 1994.

Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners, Kansas City, MO, "Historic & Dedicatory Monuments of Kansas City," 1987, pg. 46-47.

Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985.

Church, Phimister Proctor, 2000.

Proctor, Alexander Phimister, "Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor in Buckskin, an Autobiography," Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971, pg. 246-247.

Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners, Kansas City, MO, "Historic & Dedicatory Monuments of Kansas City," 1987, pg. 46-47.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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