Meetings with Mrs. Collins

Mary Bridget Collins survived the Irish Potato Famine and endured hard years of homesteading in Minnesota with an abusive husband. In 1880, she escaped with her young daughter Rose, and made her way across the Great Plains to Montana working as a cook for the Northern Pacific Railroad construction crew. Montana Territory was bustling with activity: the end of the buffalo herds, the long cattle drives from Texas, and the expansion of the railroads. Mary settled in the rough frontier town of Terry, Montana, where, in 1893, she met the aristocratic Englishwoman Evelyn Cameron and her ornithologist husband Ewen, who were escaping the confines of British society to create a new life as horse ranchers. Evelyn Cameron’s diaries reveal intriguing details of her life on the frontier - including a rare glimpse of nineteenth-century Montana cuisine - and document her struggles to become a professional photographer. They also tell the story of an unlikely friendship with the engaging and eccentric Mrs. Collins, who was a valuable resource to the young Cameron’s as they learned to survive in this desolate, yet beautiful land. On March 20, 1900, Evelyn photographed Mrs. Collins: Mrs. Collins had a great time getting herself and room ready. She couldn’t find her gown & lost her false teeth. She thought her dog had gone off with them. Finally she wished me to go & borrow Mrs. Van Horn’s, which I did. She had to take them out & wash them first!! Then they proved too large for her mouth. I found hers under the bed coverlid.