Laura Ingalls Wilder was a homesteader and author, famous for her Little House on the Prairie book series. Like Juana Maria, who inspired the book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Wilder actually existed. Laura Ingalls Wilder was a real woman who wrote books inspired by events that took place in her life. For example, she really grew up on rural farms in multiple states; her sister Mary actually went blind; and her husband, Almanzo, was not a work of fiction. Pictures of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder and family exist, and there is a museum dedicated to the family in Mansfield, Missouri, where visitors can at least see part of the real little house on the prairie.