Monthly Archives: December 2011

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

I love this song, created by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in 1945.   Today is the official first day of winter, but we know that in Nebraska snow usually arrives earlier at least somewhere in the state.  The song is about staying inside while it snows, but we have lots of examples in Nebraska Memories  of people being OUTSIDE to play or work in the snow.     

This 1940 image of Children and adults by a truck   shows 13 kids packed into the back of a truck for a ride sponsored by the Dundee Kiwanis Club.  The four women are dressed in the long coats and skirts typical of that era,  plus  a lone gentleman who was probably the driver.  No seatbelts in those days!

The Dundee Kiwanis Club also flooded part of their playground in the winter to make an outdoor rink for ice skating . I fondly remember the outdoor rink at my neighborhood community league playground in Edmonton, Alberta, where I grew up. The boys played hockey and the girls took figure skating lessons. How times have changed – now girls get to play hockey too!

Adults also liked to have fun in the snow, like this group of students having a snowball fight at Union College in the first decade of the 20th century.    Do you wonder if the young man dropping the snowball on the head of the young woman next to him was trying to get her attention for other reasons?

But work has  to be done no matter what the weather is like .   Livestock still needs feeding and  somebody has to keep the wheels turning,  like  Engineer G. Strayer   driving a train through snow following a blizzard in southwest Nebraska in the late 1940’s.

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.

Hats, bonnets (sun, poke, cottage, drawn), caps, berets, turbans, wimples, fascinators, hoods, pillboxes, boaters, cloches, bandeaux, chapeaux … warmth, protection or fashion statement?

Few women in Nebraska wear hats on a regular basis anymore, unless they belong to a special group. However, it used to be that women wouldn’t be seen out in public without one. While many women’s head coverings may have been worn to keep the head warm or protect the face from the sun, there were more reasons for wearing them.

Some head coverings represent a profession or calling. Evelyn Powell is pictured in a US Naval Reserve (Women’s Reserve) uniform in the last year of World War II. [These women were also known as WAVES which stood for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.] Emily Anderson wears the cap symbolic of the nursing profession. These and the portrait images in this post are from the Butler County Gallery Collection.

But outside of the professional use, many hats were definitely worn as a fashion statement. Birds and their feathers were popular for decorations, making some hats pure flights of fancy. The hat to the left, worn by Dana Fenlon, has full wings to takeoff. Others, like the one worn by Bertha Neal at right, limited themselves to a few feathers.

Flowers and bows were also popular. Hazel Walker’s hat is limited to blossoms. Other decorations abound on the many women’s hats found in the images of Nebraska Memories. And, for those who needed help in making a statement, there was great fun in trying on the latest creations in the millinery department of the local store, such as the one in the Nebraska Clothing Company.

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.