Category Archives: Nebraska Memories

In early January, I moved from Montana to Nebraska. This is not necessarily the best time of the year for a road trip. It’s cold. It’s bleak. Fortunately, my mom decided to make the trip with me.  We entertained ourselves by talking about the landmarks, odd formations, and abandoned structures we glimpsed along the freeway. For example, as we drove from Scottsbluff to Lincoln, we saw a lot of windmills. It seemed like there were windmills popping up all over the place. Looking for windmills helps make that last leg go a little faster!

Now, we have windmills in Montana. We even have a few wind farms, but you do not see a lot of windmills standing alone in a field. Most are adjacent to a farmhouse or a barn, and may still be operational. For those living off the grid, windmills serve as an excellent power source.  Wanting to see more of Nebraska’s windmill heritage, I searched Nebraska Memories for images and publications.

As you may know, homesteaders used windmills to convert wind into energy that could be used to pump water wells.  In areas where there are few rivers, it makes sense that farmers and ranchers used the energy generated by windmills to bring water to the surface.  Looking through Nebraska Memories, I found a few photographs of windmills. However, rather than featuring a solitary windmill in a field, most of the images depicted windmills standing adjacent to a homestead or lurking in the background.  This makes sense. After all, the windmills my mom and I glimpsed as we sped across the Nebraska plains were the remains of abandoned homesteads.

If you would like to see more photographs of windmills, 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, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx For more information, contact Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

The origin of the phrase “to the nines” is debatable; however, the meaning or intent seems to be consistent, as in to perfection or to the highest degree. When combined with the word dress, it can mean smartly or flamboyantly.

Formal dress was de rigueur for photographs taken in a photographer’s studio, even in small town Nebraska. Florence Martin Stevens, dressed in a trim two-piece fitted top and matching skirt, posed for the photograph, at left, taken by A. C. Strauss in Osceola, Nebraska, probably in the 1890s. The only embellishment on her tidy costume appears to be a bow at the collar. Margaret Meister’s costume,  on the other hand, is a bit looser fitting, embellished with flowers, and topped by a very large frilly hat. Mrs. Meister’s photographer, Harvey Boston of David City, perhaps contributed the flowers as some of the women in other photographs taken by him are also decked out in a similar manner (Butler County Gallery Collection).

In the following decade, Dora Lane dressed just as fine but her costume is a two-piece suit made of a lighter colored pinstripe material and worn over a white blouse with lace at its collar. The jacket, while fitted around the body, has puffed sleeves and insets of darker cloth at the cuffs which match the attachment on her collar. Her large hat of a dark color isn’t quite as frilly as Mrs. Meister’s; it has a bit of frill at the back and some type of ornamentation on the front brim. Harvey Boston also took this photograph.

A few decades later, during the Great Depression, hemlines had risen and clothing tended to be less bulky. However, in Mr. and Mrs. Victor Barta’s wedding picture, the bride, Helen, wears a dark dress lightened by a wide, white lace over-collar and calla lilies pinned at the center of her neckline. Her soft hat is much smaller than the other two, more like a cap, but it has a wide woven ribbon around the edge and a short piece of netting attached to the back edge. This photograph was taken by Harvey’s daughter, Edith Boston Proskovec in 1936.

So where would these ladies have gotten their fine outfits? The first three were most likely made at home or by a dressmaker specifically for the wearers. Into the beginning of the twentieth century, even in institutions, like the Nebraska Hospital for the Insane, clothing had to be sewn (Section of sewing room in Industrial Building, Nebraska Hospital for the Insane. Lincoln, Nebraska Library Commission Collection).

Mrs. Barta, Helen, may have had her dress specially made, too. Or it’s possible she made the trip to one of the larger towns in Nebraska to shop at a store such as Virginia Dare Women’s Apparel in Omaha. William Wentworth’s night time photograph from the late 1930s or early 1940s shows lots of wonderful costumes and accoutrements. The Brandeis Store was another popular department store in Omaha, and Wentworth’s photograph at right shows one of their models wearing a ready-to-wear print dress in 1939. (The Durham Museum Collection)

It is also possible that Helen shopped in her local dress store the A to Z Dress Shop in David City, shown below. Small to be sure, but customers were certain to receive personal service.

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.

So fellas, did you think about your clothes when you put them on this morning? Dress up with a suit and tie or down with torn jeans and a baseball cap? Coordinate the colors or fabrics of top and bottoms? And where did you buy your fine fashions–a fine men’s store, a shop at the mall, or the local convenience store?

Where do you suppose a man-about-town or a hard-working farmer would have gone to get advice and purchase the latest fashions in the early part of the last century?

In a small northeastern Nebraska town, they may have gone to a store like the one in the photographic postcard above. The store had the simple name of “Clothing and Shoes” and had an equally simple method of displaying the merchandise by stacking it on a long counter. Notice that the clerk behind the counter is the most formally attired, but  all three men wear hats and two wear suit coats. (Men looking at clothing, Nebraska State Historical Society Collection, circa 1907)

In Neligh, another northeastern Nebraska town, the men’s store at left has more merchandise displayed in a more formal layout. While much of the merchandise is stored in boxes which are stacked and organized on shelves behind the counter, pants in a variety of colors are laid out along the curved counter so that customers can get a better view. With the pants display is an order book for “Custom Made Trousers,” which it appears could be ordered in from another company. The two clerks, formally dressed in dress pants, shirts, vests, and bow ties, appear ready to advise their customers in the latest sartorial fashions. (Clothing store and employees, Neligh, Nebraska; Antelope County Historical Society Collection, circa 1910)

If you wanted to order clothing fitted specifically for yourself directly from the source, you may have visited your local tailor such as Herman Petersen of Fremont, who displayed examples of his clothing in the windows of his establishment as shown in the photograph at right. (Herman Petersen Tailoring, Keene Memorial Library Collection, 1925)

Residents of David City and the surrounding area may have shopped at Tillma-Anderl Cash Toggery, left, whose signs above the display windows advertise clothing, shoes, hats and furnishings. The displays on either side of the door include a variety of clothing and a couple of suitcases. Notice that formal clothing, including suit jackets are still the main parts of the display(Tillma-Anderl Storefront, Butler County Gallery Collection, 1938)

Or, if you visited the big city of Omaha, you may have shopped at the Nebraska Clothing Store, right. Shelves line the walls of the large room, and additional items are stored beneath the display tables in the center. Several suggested combinations of jackets, shirts and ties grace the top of one table. A fan helps customers keep their cool while making the right choice. (Interior view of men’s department of Nebraska Clothing Store, The Durham Museum Collection, circa 1940)

Visit Nebraska Memories to search or browse for other historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and various 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 Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

This week we received, as a gift, a copy of the Paxton & Gallagher 75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee Cookbook, 1864-1939.  It has been wonderful to leaf through the recipes and handwritten notes, and wonder about the company who produced them, as well as the many cooks who used them.

As it turns out, there are several pictures related to Paxton & Gallagher in Nebraska Memories, so here is a brief history of the company and its’ founders:

Paxton & Gallagher Wholesale Grocery was founded in 1879 by two Omaha businessmen: Ben Gallagher and William A. Paxton, and in a few short years became one of the largest grocery companies in the West.   Paxton started out as a cattleman, then became a banker who had his hand in many different businesses in Omaha and Nebraska.  Examples of Nebraska Memories pictures of some of his ventures are, from left to right: The Paxton Hotel, the Paxton & Vierling Iron Works, and the Nebraska Telephone Company (in which Paxton was a principal stockholder).

Gallagher, on the other hand, was a grocery man only, and previously operated a series of general stores all along the Union Pacific railroad route.

The original Paxton & Gallagher store was located at 15th and Farnam Street in downtown Omaha, but later moved to a four story complex at 701-711 S. 10th Street.

Paxton & Gallagher hit it big when they launched their Butter-Nut line of foods, and especially after 1913 when they began selling Butter-Nut brand coffee, a name that many people remember, and is still around today.

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 Participating in Nebraska Memories for more information, or contact Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.