Three frontier newspapers in Michigan for the period July 1849 to July 1850 were analyzed to determine how women were depicted in the press of that time. The research concentrated on coverage in six areas: courtship and marriage; the role of women as wives and mothers; women depicted in literature; famous women; women's rights in the home, on the job, and in politics; and humor and ridicule directed at women. The findings revealed that (1) women's role in courtship and marriage was extremely well-covered in the frontier press; (2) women were depicted as hard working wives and mothers; (3) women depicted in fiction were representative of prevailing attitudes of the culture, with the heroine willing to sacrifice everything for her country and family; (4) famous women did merit some coverage in the press, but only a fraction of that given to notable men; (5) far from ridiculing women's rights, the newspapers praised those seeking to extend these rights; and (6) most of the humor directed toward women concerned their dress or ridiculed their allegedly talkative nature. (FL)