The Boys' Room

The Boys' Room

For the exhibit, the Boys’ Room serves as the stage for the story of Maggie Wylie Mellette, the mother of four boys, Wylie, Charlie, Anton, and Dick.

The life of the Maggie Wylie Mellette exemplified the difficulties of mothering and maintaining the idealized vision of maternity. Her struggles with chronic illness and her eventual move out west complicated her ability to mother and raise her four boys. While Maggie’s health problems began before her role as mother, the vast and laborious expectations of mothering took a toll on her health, eventually motivating her husband Arthur to seek a better climate for his sickly wife. This decision, effectively, separated Maggie from her female relatives, whom she had come to rely on during times of illness. Maggie’s ability to return to the care of mother, often leaving her motherly duties to her female relatives, was no longer possible after her and the family moved to the South Dakota Territory in 1878.

For more information contact the Wylie House Museum and for more information about the collections at the museum visit Wylie House Museum: Collections Overview.

Wylie House Museum