Traveling West.

From the 1830s to the 1860s between 250,000 and 500,000 individuals traveled to California and Oregon on the overland trails. The trip from the Missouri River to the West Coast was nearly two thousand miles. Emigrants came from many backgrounds, but about six in ten male heads of households were farmers who hoped to find better farmland in the West. Other men worked as artisans or professionals, but many of them also took up farming in Oregon or California. The men and women who made this journey expected it to be long and dangerous, and most prepared carefully for its rigors.

Limitation.

The people who traveled on the overland trails, like most Americans in their day, had limited wardrobes of largely handmade clothing. Little girls began learning to sew early, and by the time they married, women knew how to make clothing for...