Caption This Photo. . . .

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Karen Keehr

J.J. Andre Co. Merchandise Store, Petersburg, NE (RG3145.PH3-5)

Remember winter? While we might be enjoying a fairly mild winter this year in Nebraska, this photograph has me longing for the snowy fun of winters past.  The young woman in this 1920s snapshot is all smiles as she aims her snowball at the camera.  Behind her is the J.J. Andre Company Merchandise Store in Petersburg, Nebraska.

Help me caption this photograph. Post your suggestion in the comments below.

Karen Keehr
Curator of Photographs

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At Work, Five Miles a Day, On a Scooter, In a Pipe?

Posted on January 25, 2012 by dbristow

If you asked most Americans what “traveling the hard way” was, what sort of answers would you get? Biking? Walking? Swimming? At NSHS, we have discovered another method of “traveling the hard way:” in a 48-inch pipe on a small four-wheeled scooter.

Recently, while searching for a particular obituary, NSHS historian Matt Piersol happened upon a title that was just too interesting to pass up; “From Lincoln to Ashland is Five-Mile-A-Day Task.” A photo of a man crouching in a large pipe accompanied the article, also drawing Piersol’s attention. The article was from the Lincoln Daily Star, December 17, 1954. It revealed that the man was Elmer Cole, a field inspector for the Lincoln engineering department. He was inspecting a 48-inch diameter water pipe that was being constructed between Ashland and Lincoln. Cole had to scrutinize every joint along the entire line to ensure there were no leaking points. With a joint every ten feet, Cole had to inspect more than 10,000 joints on his journey to Ashland.

Fortunately, Cole did not have to make this trip all at once. Every five miles in the unfinished pipe there was an opening where Cole was able to climb out. His goal was to inspect five miles of the 20-25 mile pipeline each day. In order to spare him the difficulty of crawling, he used a small scooter, similar to what mechanics use for sliding under cars. It would seem that field inspector is not a job for claustrophobics.

-Joy Carey, Editorial Assistant

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Skating Under Cover: Kearney’s Indoor Ice Rink

Posted on January 23, 2012 by pgaster

An ice skater was photographed on a frozen Sandhills lake in Cherry County by Solomon D. Butcher in 1901. NSHS RG2608-2913 (detail).

Ice skating enthusiasts in Nebraska braved winter weather and rough ice before the advent of the indoor rink made “skating under cover” a more comfortable experience. The Kearney Daily Hub on November 24, 1891, announced the opening of such a rink, “Which Promises to do an Immense Business this Winter.” The new rink was to have a bandstand, seating for spectators, cloak and reception rooms, and electric lighting.  

Several months later, on January 16, 1892, the Hub said: “Skating under cover at the rink is becoming more and more an attraction as the public comes to realize and appreciate the superior advantages attached thereto. The very best class of people are the greatest patrons of this novelty as the management gains more and more their good will and confidence.”  

This advertisement for Kearney’s indoor ice skating rink is from the Kearney Daily Hub, January 22, 1892.

Kearney’s indoor ice rink in 1891-92 was not the first to offer such amenities. The Omaha Daily Bee on January 4, 1884, advertised: “Plenty skates, ice good, rink well lighted and dressing rooms well heated. St. Mary’s avenue rink.” Kearney’s social club for single men, the Bachelors’ Protective Union, told the Daily Hub in October of 1889 that plans were underway to flood and enclose the B.P.U.’s tennis grounds to create an indoor rink with “dressing rooms, stoves and refreshment bouffes [sic] for hot coffee and light lunches.” Ice skaters could at last enjoy a favorite winter sport in indoor comfort.  

To view several objects and images from the Nebraska History Museum’s collections relating to ice skating, see the Nebraska State Historical Society’s blog entry for December 2, 2010. – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor/Publications

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Superman Comes to Omaha . . .er, Lincoln

Posted on January 20, 2012 by darenz

The Nebraska State Historical Society collects and cares for hundreds of thousands of items.  Not surprisingly, many are quite old.  We aren’t, however, neglecting the present.  Although it can be difficult to determine today what will have historical relevance one hundred years from now we at times put on our “seer” cap and collect items that we feel will stand the test of time and be appreciated by future generations of Nebraskans. We think this item fits the bill because, really, how many times can we expect Superman to visit the Cornhusker state?

This April 2011 DC Comic book was part of a series in which Superman was traveling around American and seen in various cities. Prior to the publication of this particular issue DC Comics held a contest to allow readers to “bring Superman to your city.”  Promotional pieces sent out prior to the release date indicated that Superman was going to visit Omaha. Understandably, Omaha comic stores prepared for the event and upon receiving the comic book were disappointed to discover that Superman had indeed visited . . . .Lincoln.

Plopped down in Lincoln Superman wonders why he couldn't have stayed in Kansas. Perhaps he should have been wondering why he wasn't in Omaha

Obviously our state capitol.

 

The Omaha World-Herald speculated that the mix-up could be due to this issue having  two writers, one who stepped in at a late date (and didn’t get the Omaha/Lincoln memo one would suppose), and the DC editor-in-chief apologized to Omaha fans and retailers for the mix-up.

–Deb Arenz, Associate Director for Collections

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Brown Bag Lecture to Discuss the Building of First Transcontinental Telegraph

Posted on January 18, 2012 by pgaster

A Pony Express rider saluting telegraph builders, who would soon put the Pony Express out of business. NSHS RG24090-144

Charles Brown was a young lawyer when he became the right-hand man to telegraph pioneer Edward Creighton of Omaha. Brown’s journal survives as the only known daily chronicle of the building of the transcontinental telegraph. Published in August 2011 by Nebraska State Historical Society Books, the journal was edited by retired Creighton history professor Dennis N. Mihelich and Nebraska State Historical Society senior research historian James E. Potter.  

Charles H. Brown, from J. Sterling Morton and Albert Watkins, Illustrated History of Nebraska, Vol. 1, third edition (1911).

Mihelich will give a free Brown Bag lecture based on the book First Telegraph Line across the Continent: Charles Brown’s 1861 Diary, beginning at noon on Thursday, January 19, at the Nebraska History Museum, Fifteenth and P streets, in Lincoln. The lecture will cover Brown’s diary, from the Smithsonian Institution collections, as the only known extensive source written about the day-to-day construction of one segment of the first transcontinental telegraph line. Brown’s lively narrative is filled with period detail about individuals, road ranches, attitudes toward Indians, public promotion of the spirit of Manifest Destiny, difficulties facing construction crews, the nature of frontier law enforcement, and even the issues of secession and Civil War.  

The lecture will be filmed for Lincoln-area cable channel 5 and posted on YouTube at a later date in case you are not able to attend.  Previous Brown Bag lectures at the Nebraska State Historical Society have already been posted. Copies of the book are available at the NSHS Landmark Stores. – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor /Publications

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Blizzard of January 12, 1888

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Tom Mooney

The early settlers of Nebraska faced many hardships, a great number of these weather and climate related. Among the most destructive of natural disasters were the sudden prairie blizzards. The blizzard of January 12, 1888 had an immense impact on the lives of all who remembered it.

This blizzard was one of the most destructive and devastating in Nebraska history for a number of reasons: its unexpected arrival on what had been a relatively warm winter’s day; the timing, striking Nebraska and the Dakota territories when children were at school and farmers were out working in the fields; and the fierceness of the winds that swirled the snow around so much that visibility was near zero for hours. Because so many children were in school when the blizzard struck, the blizzard is often referred to as “the schoolchildren’s blizzard”.

On January 12, 1940, an impromptu get-together of storm survivors was held at the Lindell Hotel in Lincoln, at the urging of W. H. O’Gara, former Speaker of the Nebraska House of Representatives. Those present elected to make their meeting an annual event, and the January 12, 1888 Blizzard Club was born.

In All Its Fury (NSHS Library 551.5 Og1 1973)

In All Its Fury (NSHS Library 551.5 Og1 1973)

Continue reading →

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Gold Cure for the Liquor Habit

Posted on January 11, 2012 by pgaster

From the Kearney Daily Hub, January 16, 1893.

Nebraska was home during the late nineteenth century to a number of local Keeley hospitals or treatment centers for patients addicted to alcohol, nicotine, and narcotic drugs. Dr. Leslie E. Keeley opened the first Keeley Institute in Dwight, Illinois, in 1879, and by the 1890s every state and nearly every county had a Keeley Institute where injections of “bichloride” or “double chloride” of gold (from which the treatment for alcoholism became known as the “Gold Cure”) could work its wonders for the addicted.  

The success of the Keeley institute invited imitation, and it wasn’t long before other treatment centers featuring bichloride of gold were established. Lincoln had its own institute for the cure of alcoholics and morphine addicts, organized by Dr. M. H. Garten. Dr. Garten enjoyed some success outside Lincoln. Seward had a Garten Institute in 1892 headed by Dr. J. H. Woodward, and Sacramento County, California, had a Garten Gold Cure Institute Company in 1894. Dr. M. D. Bedal’s Gold Cure Company of Blair guaranteed a “perfect and permanent cure” for addictions, according to the Omaha Daily Bee of November 15, 1891. During the early 1890s Kearney newspapers carried advertisements for the Goodson Institute in Kearney (which promoted its “Gold Cure for the Liquor Habit”) and the Grand Island Bi-Chloride of Gold Institute.  

The ideas of Dr. Keeley and his imitators were reflected in this campaign button praising William Jennings Bryan, with his free-silver ideology, as the “American Gold Cure.” NSHS 4610-21

Despite its widespread popularity and the testimonials of patients, many suspected the bichloride of gold practitioners of being quacks. The Kearney Daily Hub on August 10, 1893, even reported tongue-in-cheek a new use for bichloride of gold in “salting” gold mines:

“The plan, as near as has been found out, is to take a solution of Dr. Keeley’s bichloride of gold and with a hypodermic syringe inject it into the walls or bottom of the mine it is desired to ‘salt.’ The rock being porous absorbs the liquid readily and leaves no trace of anything except the glittering gold. . . . . The writer heard of one case last week where $10,000 cash was paid for a mine that had been given ‘the jag cure’ and was not worth five cents.”  

By the time of Keeley’s death in 1900, however, an estimated 400,000 patients had taken the Keeley cure. The institute in Dwight closed in 1966. – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor/Publications

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Treasures from Nebraska Museums

Posted on January 6, 2012 by darenz

The NSHS works hard to collect and preserve Nebraska history, but we don’t do it alone. Historical organizations and museums dot our ninety-three counties and contain many treasures. To support their work in preserving our collective history, we’ve started a program called Treasures from Nebraska Museums. We’ll showcase items from the collections of various Nebraska historical organizations through an exhibit at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln, our newsletter Nebraska History News, and through this blog. The ”treasures” will change every three months, allowing us to share the good work of four organizations each year.

We begin with the Louis E. May Museum/Dodge County Historical Society, located in Fremont, Nebraska’s “Nye House.”

Photo by Rader Photography

Built around 1874 by Theron Nye, the house was an Italianate structure until Theron’s son, Ray, renovated it in a Georgian revival style. In 1921 it was sold to the Lutheran church for use as a seminary in 1921; in 1968 the Louis E. May Trust bought it to house a historical museum for the citizens of Dodge County. The house is fully furnished and features period rooms and exhibits about Dodge county citizens, businesses, and events. The museum is located at 1643 North Nye Ave. in Fremont. It is open April–December, Wednesday–Saturday, 1:30-4:30 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $1 for students, ages five and under free. 402-721-4515, maymuseum.com.

Below are  a few of the “treasures” from the Louis E. May Museum/Dodge County Historical Society that are currently on exhibit at the Nebraska State Historical Society’s Nebraska History Museum.

Automatic Harp, with a music box inside, used by the Fremont Independent Order of the Odd Fellows around 1900. It is unknown if it was actually played as an instrument.

Windows from the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fremont. These windows, from about 1910, are backed with decorative paper to give the appearance of stained glass. The church was torn down around 1955.

 

Bread bowl, four feet in diameter, used at the Breitling Bakery in Fremont (which closed in 1903). The Breitling family emigrated from Germany and owned a bakery in Genoa, Nebraska, prior to opening their Fremont shop. Bread ingredients would be mixed in this bowl and then left to rise. Such a large bowl would produce many loaves—appropriate for commercial use.

 Please keep your eye out for future “Treasures from Nebraska Museums.”

–Deb Arenz, Associate Director for Collections

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An Ice Union of Two Cities

Posted on January 4, 2012 by pgaster

From the John P. Falter Collection. NSHS 10645-3733

January 12, 1888, marked not only the famous blizzard but a happier event–what the Omaha Daily Bee on January 13 called “An Ice Union of Two Cities.” Despite the inclement weather, a sleighing carnival in Council Bluffs attracted many Omahans from across the frozen Missouri River. The Bee said: 

“The weather was most inauspicious, as the air was filled with snow from early morning until after night set in. Despite the storm, about five hundred sleighs belonging to citizens of the Bluffs turned out to do honor to the visitors, who were met at the river’s bank and escorted through the city. The Omahans arrived in about two hundred and seventy-five sleighs and were accompanied by a fine band.” It was estimated that the crowd included at least 3,000 people, with 800 from Omaha, including students from the Omaha Business College in a chartered, four-horse sleigh.  

After speeches and refreshments at the Ogden House, the sleighing carnival participants adjourned to the Masonic Temple, “where dancing was indulged in. During the whole afternoon refreshments were served in the dining hall of the Ogden. Several of the guests returned to the other side of the river early in the afternoon, owing to the increased violence of the storm, although some remained in the city over night.”  

A second carnival, hosted by Omaha on January 20, was intended to repay the hospitality of Council Bluffs and attracted a large number of sleighs from across the still frozen Missouri River. – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor/Publications

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A New Year’s Eclipse

Posted on December 27, 2011 by pgaster

A New Year’s greeting card from 1888. NSHS 7631-54

The most memorable feature of New Year’s Day in Nebraska in 1889 was a solar eclipse that occurred between three and four o’clock in the afternoon. The Omaha Daily Bee on December 23, 1888, had announced: “The new year will make its debut with an eclipse of the sun, which will be total on the Pacific slope, and partial in these parts. Very few of the present generation have seen a solar eclipse on New Year’s day.”  

The Bee reported on January 2: “Here in Omaha about four-fifths of the sun was covered by the dark body of the moon about 4 o’clock, at which time the light was sickly and wan. . . . The sun looked like a crescent through smoked glass, but in spite of the moon’s bad behavior, what was left of his sunship was too powerful to be regarded by the naked eye.”  

The eclipse was also a major attraction in Lincoln. The Capital City Courier reported on January 5 that thousands of persons there “began to look for the great blot about three o’clock, but it was not until about four o’clock that the eclipse presented its most beautiful appearance.”  

From Mabel Loomis Todd, Total Eclipses of the Sun (Boston, 1900).

In McCook the eclipse was described by the McCook Tribune on January 4 as a “beautiful vision, . . . During a certain stage in the proceedings the sight was truly sublime, even to the naked eye.” — Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor/Publications

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