Images of Our Time: A History and Pictures of a Pioneer Family

This book, a pictorial and written record of life in rural Oregon during the late 1800s and early 1900s, includes a brief history of immigration to the United States and the Oregon territories. In these pages, author, Toni Gilbert, crafts a living, breathing picture of her pioneering grandparents. While some official papers remain intact, much of Gilbert’s information was passed down orally. Current descendants of the Curtis-Wilson family had several old picture books containing photographs by Lilly Wilson Curtis, Gilbert’s grandmother, who was a trained photographer. These, along with Lilly Wilson Curtis’s saved newspaper articles, lend beauty and credence to the stories. Taken together, Gilbert’s sources reveal the urban cultural trends, personality traits, and family patterns that formed the life paths of her ancestors. Toni Gilbert, ASN, BA, MA, uses her education in the fields of nursing, psychology, and art to increase her reader’s understanding of life in rural Oregon in the early part of the last century. Having studied the human condition for decades, Gilbert brings a deep appreciation for the human experience to her family history. Lyle Curtis, Contributor, has gifted the reader with considerable research into the lives of his ancestors, both on-line and in person, and has traveled to the eastern and southern United States, to Iowa, and to Illinois, seeking further information about the lineage of the Curtis and Wilson families.