Fire fighters were a part of Nebraska’s history even before statehood. The volunteer fire department in Nebraska City, founded in 1856, is the oldest fire department still in existence in the state. While we don’t have any images of the Nebraska City department, Nebraska Memories does include many images of fire fighters from around the state.
There are quite a few posed pictures of fire fighters, including the
1910-1911 Crawford fire department, the
Bertrand fire department sometime around 1900, and some
Lincoln fire fighters in 1898.
If you would like to see fire fighters in action, check out
this series of photographs of
Holdrege volunteer fire fighters battling a fire at Linder Motor Company in 1954. There are also
several photographs of the destruction caused by this particular
fire.
Visit
Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials.
Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact
Beth Goble, Government Information Services Director, or
Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.
