Category Archives: Nebraska Memories

Are you still looking for a unique way to express your love to a special someone today? Can you sing, play the piano and/or play the ukulele? If you answered yes, I have a few scores for you. One of the participants in Nebraska Memories is the Polley Music Library. Included in their collection are 256 musical scores. The complete scores are available so if you have the skills you can perform one these love songs for your special someone.

Lovin’ you

• Written by Sara S. Green and Frances M. Green of Beatrice, Nebraska.
• First line of the chorus: “Lovin’ you, that’s all I do”

Let me sail on the ship of love

• Written by Elsie Butz of Talmage, Nebraska.
• Chorus:
  “Let me sail on the ship of love,
  And dream the whole time thru,
  Let me sail on the ship of love,
  ‘Way from all trouble too,
  Where there is no cloud or sorrow
  Only ones you have to borrow,
  Let me sail on the ship of love,
  With dreams of love and you.”

After the recent snowstorm, I saw many beautiful pictures of the snow. The pictures were taken by both friends and strangers from across Nebraska. Some were taken to show the amount of snow received while others were taken to show nature’s beauty. As I was looking at the images in Nebraska Memories today, I noticed a number of similar images of snow taken 100+ years ago. Here are a few of my favorites.

Beautiful Snow

Cedar River

The first four photos in this post were taken by John Nelson. John Nelson was born in Sweden and moved to Wheeler County Nebraska with his parents when he was a young man. Eventually he opened a photography studio in Ericson Nebraska. While we don’t know the exact dates these photos were taken, we believe they were taken sometime between 1907 and 1918.

The above stereoscopic photograph shows antique farm machinery covered in snow. On the right image, in the bottom left corner, someone wrote “The Beautiful Snow”.

The next photo shows the banks of the Cedar River covered in snow. The Cedar River is a long winding river that starts in northern Nebraska, goes by Ericson, and finally joins the Loup River west of Fullerton, NE.

Snow covered trees and field

Farmhouse in snow

The second stereoscopic photograph shows snow covered trees and field. Images like this are timeless. It’s easy to imagine someone taking a photo like this during the last snowstorm.

The fourth picture shows Nels and Bengta Nelson’s farmhouse. They were John Nelson’s parents. The snowdrifts look large and the tracks in the snow look deep.

Clarkson Hospital

Photos of two other buildings caught my attention. This photo of the Clarkson Hospital in Omaha from the early 1900’s shows a portion of 21st Street in Omaha. The street looks to be snow packed and a little rough. I don’t think it would be a fun street to drive down.

I was surprised when I first saw this postcard of the Nebraska State Capitol in winter. This was the first time I’d seen a postcard of the second capitol with snow on the ground.

State Capitol in winter, Lincoln, Neb.

While the capitol may look nice surrounded by snow not everyone was impressed with the building. This postcard was never mailed but someone did write a note on the back. Here are their thoughts on the building. “This is an old “ramshackle” place surrounding by a park as shown in picture.” The person’s description of the building was probably correct. Construction on this capitol was completed in 1888 however, the construction was supposed to have been poor. In 1919, the Legislatures passed a bill providing for the construction of a new capitol that still stands today.

The last three images I would like to highlight are postcards of Hanscom Park in Omaha. Hanscom Park is located about a block west of Interstate 480 and the Martha Street exit. The land for the park was donated in 1872 and was improved in 1889. The park appears to have been a popular spot or at least a popular spot to take photographs. There are 30+ images on Hanscom Park in Nebraska Memories.

Winter scene in Hamscom Park, Omaha, Nebr.

Winter beauty, Hanscom Park, Omaha, Neb.

Hanscom Park in winter, Omaha, Nebr.

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, contact Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

Some people say change is inevitable, but how much have things really changed over the past 100 years?

In 1917, the Nebraska Telephone Co. Building at left was completed in Omaha with a “modern telephone exchange” (Omaha Public Library Collection). There were over 6,000 independent telephone companies in the United States at that time with a fair number in Nebraska. Over the years many of those companies merged or were bought out. Today with the cell phone technology, different service providers, who buy out and/or merge with each other regularly, are again working to provide a new “telephone exchange” by expanding cell phone service to the more rural areas of Nebraska.

Transportation was in flux in 1917. While horse-drawn vehicles were still in use in some rural areas, motorized vehicles were taking over–both gas and electric. This brought about the building of automobile dealerships, gas stations, garages, solid-surface roads, and more. The Osborne Garage in Sidney at right was one of many such businesses being built in Nebraska (Cheyenne County Historical Society and Museum Collection). Mechanics today use computers to tune-up cars and trucks, but the basic need is still there for new tires, oil changes, etc. Now new dealerships and their garages are being built on the outskirts of town. And while gas cars won out for a number of decades, electric cars are making a comeback and bringing about the construction of re-charging stations. And who doesn’t run into road construction–or the need for it–on a regular basis?

The population growth in early twentieth-century Nebraska brought a demand for amenities such as public libraries. At least 72 Nebraska towns erected new public library buildings between 1900 and 1920. 1917 alone saw the construction of at least nine public library buildings, two of which are still used as libraries: Cordelia B. Preston Memorial Library in Orleans and Arcadia Public Library at left (Nebraska Library Commission Collection). Other libraries have had to move on from old buildings to new buildings as technology has brought demands for different services. In 2017, Blair Public Library and Scribner Public Library both celebrated grand openings of their new facilities.

Live entertainment was popular in 1917 as it is today. In the Boileau Chautauqua Company photograph at right cast members in costume pose in a car. (Townsend Studio Collection).  As the banner on the rear promotes the model of the car, perhaps this is an early example of promoting products for corporate sponsorship. While many people still traveled by train in 1917, touring cars (open cars that could carry five or more passengers a long distance) would become popular. A car allowed more flexibility in timetables and destinations. Today many entertainers move on to their next venue in tour buses.

So visit Nebraska Memories and see what old things or concepts are new again among the many 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, contact Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

The Great War (later known as World War I) was the first large multi-country conflict in which United States forces fought. Although the U.S. took an non-intervention stance when the war started in 1914, Congress declared war and joined the Allies in April 1917 after Germany returned to torpedoing U.S. ships and offered Mexico financing to attack the U.S. on its southern border. While it took almost a year for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) to arrive in France in great numbers, AEF was established one hundred years ago this month under the command of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing.

Pershing started his military career at forts in the western territories after graduating from West Point in 1886. After fighting in several Indian campaigns, he was assigned to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln as a professor for military science and tactics and Commandant of Cadets (at left Pershing with some of his staff at the University, Townsend Studio Collection) . While there, Pershing formed a drill company which was later renamed the Pershing Rifles. Pershing attended the UNL law school and took his degree in 1893. Pershing is remembered in the naming of several buildings in Lincoln, including an elementary school and an event facility. And while they may have been singing Gershwin’s “Over There” on Broadway, Fall City’s own Harold Spencer honored Pershing with “General Pershing’s Grand March” (above right, Polley Music Library Collection).

Young men such as Marvin Murphy (above, Butler County Gallery) volunteered from towns across Nebraska joined the fight. Of course this photo was taken a few years before Marvin served in France and Germany at the age of twenty-two. As did many Nebraska veterans, Marvin returned to Nebraska, raised his family, worked in the family business, and served in a civic capacity.

Some families saw more than one son off to war. The two youngest sons of Joseph Welty both served in the war (at left, Butler County Gallery). Herbert would also have been twenty-two and Paul twenty-six. Three of the sons already had military experience, serving with the Nebraska National Guard during the Mexican insurrection in 1916. And, as happens in small towns, relatives through marriage also served in the military. Louis Welty, the second oldest son, married Mary Rosetta Delaney (standing at far right in the photo at right) whose younger brothers Charles (seated next to their mother) and Michael (seated next to Mary) were two of the older participants in the Great War. Charles was thirty-five in 1918 and Michael thirty-eight.

Not all the volunteers served in the army or overseas during the war. From the George Schweser family (at left, Butler County Gallery), Harold, the oldest served as a lieutenant in the Balloon Service in Oklahoma. Closer to home, at Fort Omaha, was the Balloon School (at right, Omaha Public Library Collection) which taught about 800 men for the Signal Corp in the war. Carl, the second oldest Schweser, served as an airplane mechanic at Camp Taylor in Alabama. And, Robert, the third in line, served in the navy.

Not all those who served made it back home from the Great War. Some died in the training camps from measles, flu, dysentary, or other diseases. Some died when their ships were sunk on the way to Europe and many more, like Albin Folda (at right with his father and sister at his mother’s grave, Butler County Gallery) died on the battlefield. Albin’s grandparents had emigrated from Bohemia, looking for a better life in the United States. They found it on a Nebraska farm they homesteaded fifty years before their twenty-four year old grandson died in France.

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, contact Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

Your library has boxes and boxes of old photographs, documents and who knows what else. They’re old. They’re dusty.  Some are labeled. Some aren’t. They’ve been in those boxes for years. You don’t know what to do with them. You’d like find a way to preserve them, preferably in digital form, but this type of project seems overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you get started?

The good news! You don’t have to go at it alone. If your town is like the one I grew up in, there’s always someone or some group looking for a project.  In fact, your local historical society or museum would make a fantastic partner.  Chances are, they have the resources to help you identify those photographs.  Also, projects are easier (and more fun) when you share the workload.

But wait! There’s more good news! The Nebraska Library Commission manages Nebraska Memories, an online archive of digital Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials. Funded through a combination of funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Nebraska Library Commission, Nebraska Memories contains images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials. Working either independently or with a partner, Nebraska cultural institutions have digitized and contributed more than 5,000 items to Nebraska Memories.

Libraries and other institutions that have partnered to digitize and upload materials to Nebraska Memories include the Antelope County Historical Society and Tilden’s Raymond A. Whitwer Memorial Library; the Crawford Historical Society and Museum and the Crawford Public Library and the High Plains Historical Society and Museum and the McCook Public Library.

I hope after reading this post, you’ll find the prospect of a digital preservation project less overwhelming. Also, you might decide to reach out to a local historical society or museum in order to host a program or two on local history. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, contact Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.