Author Archives: darenz

The Long Life of a Cherished Gift

  We all know that a gift needn’t be expensive, flashy, or purchased to be loved.  The story of this rocking horse proves that. We’re fortunate that this cherished little piece of Nebraska history ended up in the Society’s collection … Continue reading

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Colors of the Season

Red and green are colors traditionally associated with the Christmas holiday.  They are also common on quilts made during our country’s colonial era and during the colonial revival of the early 1900s.  The Nebraska State Historical Society’s quilt collection features … Continue reading

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A Nebraska Artist’s Christmas

     The Christmas Taffy Pull, Oil on Canvas Mounted on Board, 1964. This appeared on the cover of the Omaha World-Herald’s Magazine of the Midlands.  These two paintings, with Christmas themes, were created by Terence Duren (1907-1968) a leading Nebraska artist … Continue reading

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Giving Thanks from Far Away

Unfortunately being in the armed forces means that, sometimes, you need to be away from the people and places most important to you on special days like Thanksgiving.  While this is undoubtedly hard, our military has tried to soften the … Continue reading

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A Turkey Tale

Ahh, historic postcards . . . they never fail to impress.  Some of you may recall that my colleague Laura Mooney and I blogged about them at Halloween.  Well, they’re resurfacing for another holiday.  Our collection contains quite a few … Continue reading

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We Love Quilts! Part 3

Back in March I blogged about the opening of a new quilt exhibit called Beauty in Hard Times:  Depression Era Quilts in Nebraska.  I mentioned that this exhibit will run for two years and the quilts will change every six months.  Well, six months are … Continue reading

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The Ugliest Artifact I’ve Ever Seen

Museum artifacts can be beautiful.  Museum artifacts can be plain.  Plain museum artifacts can sometimes represent ugly ideas.  It is rare, however, to come across a museum artifact that is, in actuality, literally ugly.  Ah, but we’ve found one!  Thanks … Continue reading

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Native American Collection Available Online

With funding from a Save America’s Treasures grant, a private donor, and the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation, the museum collections department and conservation division of the Society recently completed a two-year project to improve the documentation and storage conditions of … Continue reading

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Smurfs, Transformers, and Trolls–Oh My!

During the past few holiday seasons my husband and I have begun giving each other toys from our past.  As we’ve gotten older and had kids of our own, our nostalgia for our childhood playthings has increased.  Not coming from … Continue reading

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Why Not Buy a Novelty Tie?

 As you may have gleaned from perusing previous blogs, the Nebraska State Historical Society houses a fairly large collection of artwork and other items from the late Nebraska artist John Falter.  Falter was a highly successful and influential illustrator from … Continue reading

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