Laura Ingalls Wilder Home in Missouri
Historic Home
On a recent trip through Missouri on our way to Kansas, we visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home in Mansfield, Missouri.
On our trips back and forth to Kansas, we had seen signs for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home each time we passed through Mansfield. Laura (Burns, just so that we don’t get Lauras confused here) said that she wanted to go visit the home. Because we had a few extra days during Laura’s spring break, we decided to stop in for a visit.
As you may know, Laura Ingalls Wilder was the author of the Little House book series, which also inspired the Little House on the Prairie television show. If you did not know, the television show was set in Minnesota, while the books took place in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, and South Dakota. The Ingalls family moved around quite a bit.
In 1894, Laura Ingalls and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, moved to Mansfield, Missouri. A little over 30 years later, Laura started writing the stories of her life. Those stories were eventually published in a series of books aimed at younger readers, and the rest is history. Or in this case, literature.
The first books in the series were written at a different house on the property (more about that one later on), and the remainder of the books were written in this farmhouse, which was built by Almanzo and is continually undergoing restoration to preserve both the house and its contents.
Even on a winter day, it was quite a picturesque house, even for a simple farmhouse over 120 years old.
Us at the Wilder House
Here we are outside of the Wilder farmhouse. Photographs were not allowed in the houses or in the museum. We are rule followers, so we did what we were told. Instead of a photo from the museum of Charles Ingalls’s old fiddle (which was really cool to see), you get a photo of us outside of the farmhouse.
I often wonder about photography restrictions that many museums have. Instead of some free publicity that they might get from visitors sharing photos on websites, Facebook, and Instagram, they prohibit taking photos of the cool stuff that they have on display. That is their right to do so, of course, but it makes me scratch my head some in this age of digital, flash-free photography and social media.
But like I said, we followed the rules. And we took lots of photos outside. Such as this one of us, where we were all smiles.
Be a rule follower. Even when you don’t understand the rules.
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. - Titus 3:1-2
About the Photos
These two photos were taken with a new lens, the Rokinon 35mm f/1.8 Sony E mount lens. I will post more about it later, but so far I have enjoyed the lens and its wider field of view than the Sony 50mm f/1.8 lens. It was even wide enough to take the selfie photo of us by holding the camera at arm’s length, which is what we did before selfie sticks were a thing.
I processed these photos in Luminar AI as normal. However, as with all of the Rokinon lenses I have owned over the years, there was a bit of color fringing, or chromatic aberration, especially on the house photo. I corrected that in Photoshop.
Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Luminar AI. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
Date: March 10, 2022
Location: Mansfield, Missouri
