Living Memories chronicles the life of a true pioneer in her own words. 

With self-deprecating humor and panache, Nellie Gail Moulton writes, “I want to leave something of my innermost self, and to particularly remember the true Pioneer Spirit that distinguished your ancestors and how each helped bring about, step by strange, miraculous, fantastic, preposterous step, the position our family holds today.” 

She tells of crossing Kansas in a covered wagon and being stopped by bandits; of becoming an accountant, school teacher and principal, and giving it up for love; of studying en plein air painting with the California masters; of managing a 22,000-acre cattle ranch, and of founding the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Playhouse, and Laguna College of Art and Design. 

“For there is one thing I believe will never fade into oblivion – beauty in literature, painting, music, the drama…”

Only recently discovered in the family archives, Living Memories is illustrated by dozens of never-before-seen photos from the Moulton family and Moulton Museum.