happy anniversary laura

Today is the 129th wedding anniversary of Laura and Almanzo Wilder. I'm sure the time has just flown by for them, probably doesn't feel like a day over 120 years.

All kidding aside, they celebrated 64 anniversaries. I've got 36 to go to catch up to them...yikes.

This is a picture of Laura in her wedding dress although it was taken about 9 years after she got married. Because they had no real wedding ceremony to speak of (they got married in the pastor's living room with no family or friends around) and it happened rather suddenly (although they'd been engaged for over a year) she didn't have time to make a wedding dress and instead chose to be married in the black dress she was finishing up at the time.

 

This picture is from the winter after they were married, sometime in late 1885 or early 1886. The story is that there was a picture of them taken on or near their wedding day but it was sent to the publisher's office in the 1930s when her Little House books were hitting it big and somehow the picture was lost. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry.

Here they are in 1933, the year they celebrated their 48th anniversary, still quite a dapper couple.


In honor of Bess and Manly's anniversary, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association (now that's quite a mouthful), of which I am a founding board member, is releasing their Call For Proposals for the upcoming academic conference - LauraPalooza 2015: Through Laura's Eyes. Any Laura scholars/fans out there should start making plans to attend this conference taking place in Brookings, SD and maybe even present a paper. We've planned 2 previous conferences that were very well received - a perfect blend of research and fun. Hope to see you in Brookings!