Author Archives: dbristow

Gasohol – The First Time Around

This photograph, from the MacDonald Studio of Lincoln and now in the collection of the Nebraska State Historical Society, shows cars belonging to Nebraska Governor Charles W. Bryan (left) and the Merrick County sheriff at the Earl Coryell station, Fourteenth … Continue reading

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Why Are These Boys Laughing?

Frederick Blaine Humphrey, who photographed these laughing boys about 1915, was born in New York State in 1876, came to Lincoln with his family as a child, and took a law degree from the University of Nebraska in 1900. He … Continue reading

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Bat and Bible

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The Ruins along Highway 2

Highway 2 through the Sandhills is one of Nebraska’s most scenic drives. Deep in the Sandhills lakes country, near the tiny town of Antioch, stand desolate, oddly-shaped concrete ruins visible from the highway—as if Antioch had once been a much … Continue reading

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The Milkman’s Horse

This milk delivery wagon, photographed in Lincoln on April 6, 1942, is a mixture of old and new: rubber tires, a glassed-in compartment for the driver—and a horse for power. Horse-drawn milk wagons were left over from earlier times, but … Continue reading

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Building a Log Cabin on the Treeless Plains

Historian Everett Dick referred to the Great Plains as the “sod-house frontier,” and Nebraska photographer Solomon Butcher made many iconic images of soddies, but frontier Nebraska also saw its share of log cabins. Roger Welsch explored the subject in a … Continue reading

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Child Labor on the Farm

I am a little boy ten years old. I go to school when we have school, but we haven’t got any school now. It will begin soon. I helped to farm last spring; I plowed with three horses and helped … Continue reading

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New Archeology at Fort Robinson

Visitors to Fort Robinson State Park (near Nebraska’s northwest corner) see many original structures as well as replicas of important buildings that were torn down in the past. Recent archeological work by the NSHS will make a new reconstruction project … Continue reading

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Saving the Present at the Cost of the Past?

In the Summer 2012 issue of Nebraska History, Daniel Spegel explains the circumstances and powers that resulted in the largest ever demolition of a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The fate of Omaha’s Jobbers Canyon district … Continue reading

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Small Town, Big Missile

In a land of open fields and apple pie, Southeast Nebraska seemed calm and routine. But in 1958 construction began on a project that was quite the opposite–giant underground bunkers holding long-range Atlas missiles for U.S. defense during the Cold … Continue reading

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