Focus on The Pioneer Mother (Eugene, Oregon) and explain the Creation and design.
Pioneer Mother began with Barker, then a vice-president of the University of Oregon, who had the initial idea to represent the pioneer mothers on campus and financial resources to present this work as a gift to the state board of education.  He commissioned Proctor to do the work in 1927, since Proctor had already created The Pioneer. For this sculpture, the model was Barker's own mother, Elvira Brown Barker, who migrated to Oregon across the Great Plains in 1847.In design, The Pioneer Mother conveys the subject in later life, after the trials of the journey westward had long been completed. When Barker made the news of his gift public, he described what set this sculpture apart: "[o]thers have perpetuated the struggles of the pioneer mother; I want to perpetuate the peace which followed her struggles."  The sculpture, placed atop a six-foot-tall base of pink granite, portrays a woman sitting at rest on a straight-backed chair, with a Bible upon her lap. The clear lines and massing of the base further enhance the suggestion of repose. Her journey, as represented in the bronze bas-relief panels on the west and east sides of the base, is over, and she is firmly rooted in her new home. Her style, as seen in her hair arrangement and cut of her dress, is simple, she is a depiction of all pioneer mothers in the twilight of their years.
The Pioneer Great Plains University of Oregon