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Natalie Lennard
Born of Calamity- Staged Photograph of Birth Scene of Wild West + Calamity Jane

2019

About the Item

"Born of Calamity" is part of international artist Natalie Lennard's series Birth Undisturbed. Every image in Birth Undisturbed is available to purchase as a limited edition, numbered photographic artwork. Available in 14x18.5, 24x31, 35x47, 47x62, 59x75 as well. Inquire for more pricing. Different sizes are printed on different archival paper; inquire for specifics. Follow our storefront at Gallery 1202 for new listings and sales. ‘Of all the half legendary characters who roamed the frontier in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and whose exploits have provoked the imagination, one of the most amazing was Calamity Jane.” — Roberta Beed Sollid. Martha Canary, better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, professional scout, and the best-known heroine of the American Wild West. Orphan, prostitute, bullwhacker; likened to Joan of Arc and Florence Nightingale, long celebrated in novels, plays, and movies. She was also a mother, living in one of the most dangerous eras to give birth. Diseases like cholera, smallpox, and dysentery were rampant before the advent of sanitation and hygiene. Poverty, malnutrition, lack of contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, and bad birth care leading to infection and fatal puerperal fever are just some reasons it was harrowing to give birth in the 1800s Wild West. Yet, it does better justice to understand how childbirth is inherently dangerous, and it was made so by those mitigating factors. The overriding, touted memory of the Wild West is that childbirth was dangerous, and many mothers and babies died. What we overlook is that many mothers and babies survived. One of those mothers was Calamity Jane. Calamity drank, smoked, lived an immoral life, spent time with a host of miners with smallpox, and ultimately died young in her 50s. And yet, despite that, childbirth did not take her life nor that of her children. There is little dispute that the Wild West was a dangerous time to bear children. Rather than blindly glamorizing the fortunate women, a depiction of the Wild West’s greatest masculine heroines in the ultimate depiction of her biological femininity helps remind us of the maternal existence behind the paternal voice that has dominated the narrative of the historical American West. Birth still happened, often simply then always complicated. Mothers lived; babies lived. In the scourge of great calamity, humanity was still capable, and the generations it bore are its legacy.
  • Creator:
  • Creation Year:
    2019
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 14 in (35.56 cm)Width: 18.5 in (46.99 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Gilroy, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: NL-7-20171stDibs: LU129826313942
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