LAWRENCE — Lily Stearns was a nimble liar, a master manipulator and an all-around opportunist.
She was also a beautiful writer and an intrepid homesteader, according to Sara Gregg, associate professor of history and environmental studies at the University of Kansas.
“Stearns tried her best to make a place for herself and her family, given some extremely adverse circumstances,” Gregg said. “I have been struck by how easy it was to piece together a full account of the type of human being she was, even though the records of her life are somewhat sparse.”
Gregg has created a virtual exhibition dedicated to this pioneering woman titled “American Land Rush: ‘A Lonely Homesteader’ Searches for Security in the Montana Homestead Boom.” This open-access exhibition is hosted by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment & Society in Munich, Germany, and it offers a microhistorical survey of Stearns’ homesteading days in northeastern Montana from 1912 to 1918.