Last Friday, September 26th, was the 240th anniversary of
Johnny Appleseed’s birth. Although he died in 1845 and never visited the plains of what would become Nebraska, growing, eating, and celebrating apples have become an important part of harvest time in Nebraska. Last Friday was also the first day of the
Applejack Festival in Nebraska City. At this time of year many of us enjoy going to the festival, visiting an orchard, and bringing home apples to fill freezers, pantries and bellies. Plus getting fresh cider to enjoy when the work is done.
Nebraska Memories participants have contributed several images about apples, from “start to finish”. The smiling ladies in the photo on the left from the
Durham Museum collection are holding bouquets of apple blossoms from the trees in the orchard they are standing in. After harvest growers displayed their best at the Nebraska State Fair.
The stereographic photo on the right in the
Nebraska State Historical Society collection was taken by John Nelson. A huge variety of apples were on display that year in the Horticulture Building (now called Industrial Arts Building) . Use your imagination to color all these beauties!
After harvest it was also time to preserve such bounty for later enjoyment. The women canning apples in this photo from the
Alegent Health Immanual Medical Center collection worked at the Immanuel Deaconess Institute. They already have quite a few jars made!
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, Historical Services Librarian, or
Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.
