Category Archives: Information Resources

This week marks  the  151^st anniversary of the passage of the Homestead Act  on May 20, 1862.  Homesteaders were allotted 160 acres of land.   They had  to  live on their  land and make improvements within six months, including building a home.   After 5 years on the land, the original filer was entitled to the property after paying  a small registration fee.  On January 1, 1863, Daniel Freeman met some local Land Office officials and convinced a clerk to open the office shortly after midnight in order to file a land claim.   Freeman became one of the first to file a claim.    160 acres proved to be too small for the arid parts of Nebraska.  The Kinkaid Act of 1904, authored by Nebraska Congressman Moses P. Kinkaid, increased the allotment to 640 acres in western and central portions of Nebraska, primarily in the Sandhills.

Trees were in short supply , and  the   tough sod
being  “busted” for crop production became 
building blocks for homes, barns, and even schools.
Several Nebraska Memories participants have
contributed photos depicting  homesteaders.
The house in this  photo of the Mundshaw’s Sod House   from the Cheyenne County Historical Society collection looks quite substantial, with a durable roof and glass windows.   It probably had a wood floor as well.   Cheyenne county also boasted a Sod School  in District #68 .   It actually had a stone foundation.  Eight of the  children in this 1904-05  picture are named Olsen, with photographer Otto Olsen using a string to snap the photo so that he could be in it.

Other parts of Nebraska had trees for lumber. 
Mr. and Mrs. James Cornell and their children
stand in front of a wood frame house in Butler County
in this photograph from the Boston Studio Project
collection, taken in the late 1890s.

There was no Kingsley Dam or  Tri-County irrigation canal holding and diverting water from the Platte River into parched fields in Phelps County in  those early days.  It’s hard to imagine how the family  in the 1880’s photo of their Dry land farm, Phelps County, Nebraska  survived.    The rows of corn look dried up.  Perhaps the windmill behind the house provided enough water for the crop.

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.

National Nurses Week is celebrated every year from May 6, which is National Nurses Day, to May 12, which is the birthday of Florence Nightingale. After taking a moment to thank the nurses that you know, explore these images of nurses in Nebraska Memories.

For a look at nursing uniforms of the past, check out these portraits of Emily Anderson, taken in 1920, and this unknown nurse, taken in the late 1890s or early 1900s. Their outfits are a far cry from the scrubs and comfortable shoes worn by nurses today.

Many of the images of nurses in Nebraska Memories are part of the Alegent Health Immanuel Medical Center collection. They depict many different aspects of life for students at the Immanuel Deaconess Institute School of Nursing. Images in this collection include a posed shot of a group of freshman students, a team photo of the School of Nursing’s women’s basketball team and a view of a capping ceremony, in which students received their nursing caps after their first year probation.

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.

As National Library Week comes to an end I wanted to highlight a few of the sixty plus Carnegie libraries that were built across Nebraska. When talking about Carnegie libraries I’m referring to those libraries built with the help of Andrew Carnegie. According to information on the Library of Congress’s website Carnegie helped to build over 2,500 libraries worldwide. You may also recognize his name in connection with the Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Mellon University.

Chadron Public Library

The first building I want to highlight is the Chadron Public Library. The bulding is located at 507 Bordeaux St in Chadron as is still the current home of the Chadron Public Library. The building was designed by George Berlinghof of Lincoln who received $100 for the architectural plans. The building was completed in 1911. Comparing the photo of the library in Nebraska Memories taken sometime in the 1920’s to a more recent photo taken in 2006 you can see the front of the building is relatively unchanged. The most noticeable change is the removal of the decorative windows. According to the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form these windows were removed in 1964 as part of effort to make the building more energy efficient.

Gothenburg Public Library

Let’s head a bit southeast and look at the Gothenburg Public Library. The library is located at 1104 Lake Ave in Gothenburg. This Carnegie library was completed in 1916. Comparing the recent photo and the historical photo you can see that an addition was added that mimics the lines of the original building.

Fairbury Public Library

For our last stop let’s look at the Fairbury Public Library. The library is located at the corner of 7th and F Street. Carnegie donated $12,500 for the library which was built on a lot purchased by the city for $2,500. The building was designed by Tyler and Son of Lincoln. It opened to the public in December of 1909 and is still being used today.

As I was researching the Fairbury Carnegie building I found an article in the 1908 North Platte semi-weekly tribune that mentioned that the town of Fairbury was asking Mr. Carnegie for additional funds. The article also stated: “They Library will be practically a duplicate of the one at Kearney.”

Kearney

Comparing the historical images of the Fairbury Public Library and the Kearney Public Library I was surprised to see how similar they looked on the outside. Unfortunately we can’t compare current photos of the Carnegie buildings because the building in Kearney was torn down in 1975. We can however see what the Adult Reading Room and the Children’s Room looked like in the Kearney Carnegie building in the 1920’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, Historical Projects Librarian, or Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

They called it the Devil Cloud. At about 6:00 pm on March 23, 1913 the “Easter Sunday Tornado” struck Omaha and cut a swath from 49th & Poppleton Sts. through Carter Lake to Council Bluffs Iowa.  140 citizens were killed and 400 injured. News of Omaha’s disaster went out on the only surviving telegraph wire — the Omaha Daily News. It remains one of Omaha’s greatest distasters, killing at least 150 people and injuring many more. This account from the March 25th 1913 EXTRA editon of the Omaha Daily Bee shows a map of the storm’s path.

The Idlewild Club  at 2307 North 24th Street was the scene of the greatest loss  of life. The owner, C. W. Dillard, and 13 customers were killed as they tried  to take shelter on the south side of the pool hall’s basement. The victims were crushed by falling debris or overcome by smoke from fires begun when woodstoves used for heating overturned. The postcard image shows the slow process of  removing the debris to recover the bodies. The victims were then removed to the Webster Telephone Exchange Building at 2213 Lake Street.

This image of a house wrecked and burned  at  26th & Patrick Avenue in northeast Omaha illustrates the danger. Fire was breaking out along the corridor of destruction. Entire police and fire  departments from Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa, were called to the scene. They fought the fires along Franklin and Decatur streets 3 blocks south of Patrick Avenue for nearly an hour. Firemen carried hoses because trucks could not reach the flames. Heavy rain fell after 8 p.m. and by 9 p.m. the houses were  smoldering ruins.  The piano sitting out front may be the only thing that was saved.

The Sacred Heart Convent immediately to the south of Bemis Park suffered heavy damage. The color postcard of the Academy of the Sacred Heart shows what it looked like before the storm. The photograph on the right of the Sacred Heart Academy shows the damage to the side facing Bemis Park.

Many more tornado images    documenting the destruction the tornado caused are in the  Omaha Public Library collection in Nebraska Memories . The 100th anniversary of the Easter Tornado will be featured in an NET television progam called Devil Clouds: Tornadoes Strike Nebraska  to be broadcast March 22nd.

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.