By Susan Skorupa, Reno Gazette-Journal

Voices of the women who traveled across the continent in the 1800s come alive in a program Thursday at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.

Historian Doris Dwyer will present “Women’s Voices from the Overland Trail,” blending stories from diaries and journals of women who traveled west on the pioneer trails during the mid-19th century.

The program is part of Archaeological Awareness & History Preservation Month.

Much of the program “is based on stories I’ve gotten from women’s journals, diaries, reminiscences, mostly from the Overland Trail, but not exclusively,” said Dwyer, who has taught history at Western Nevada College since 1980. The talk is mostly from “the 1840s, ’50s and ’60s, the high points of emigration.”

There’s enough literature from that time to explore how women recorded their journeys differently than men, she said.

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