Category Archives: Publications

Lincoln and Washington Counties Named for U.S. Presidents

The contemporary celebration of Presidents’ Day brings to mind the two Nebraska counties named for the two presidents, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, whose birthdays are commemorated in February.   The older of the two, Washington County, is located in eastern … Continue reading

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What’s in a Name?

When your name is easily used in puns and songs, the novelty wears off quickly. But instead settling for cheap laughs, one Nebraska town has turned a notable name into international recognition and thousands of letters. In the Spring 2013 … Continue reading

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Nebraska Cigars Once a Smoker’s Delight

The photograph above, from the collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society, depicts employees of a Lincoln establishment, identified by a sign over the awning as the Ross & Bryson Cigar Factory, about 1910. Others have gathered to pose, including a … Continue reading

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Fire and Accident a Friend to Coyotes

Organized hunts for “wolves” (what we now call coyotes) were a frequent part of the winter sporting scene in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. Hundreds of hunters frequently joined in, but despite all the manpower, the wiley coyote was not … Continue reading

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A Funny-Looking Airplane

Above is an LS Cruiser, built by Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, and shown here sometime between 1920 and 1922. The photo is from the NSHS collections and appears in Wings Over Nebraska: Historic Aviation Photographs, published by … Continue reading

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Students and the Saloon

Although dating from the 1870s, the city of Lincoln’s preoccupation with the prohibition issue quickened in the first decade of the twentieth century. With the failure of efforts to add a prohibitory amendment to the state constitution in 1890, prohibitionists … Continue reading

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The Rescue of Oscar Phelps

“Quite an exciting scene was witnessed last evening, on the river bank just opposite Boyd’s packing house,” said the Omaha Daily Bee on January 23, 1882, “which came near resulting very seriously.” An accident victim, rescued from a fall through … Continue reading

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On Omaha’s “Streets of Cairo” in 1898

The best-known photographs of Omaha’s 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition feature the elegant Grand Court (which looked even more spectacular at night, thanks to an unprecedented use of electric lighting). But next to the Grand Court was the not-so-elegant Midway, … Continue reading

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New NSHS-Authored Book Shows Nebraska’s Role in Civil War

From a pool of barely nine thousand men of military age, Nebraska—still a territory at the time—sent more than three thousand soldiers to the Civil War. They fought and died for the Union cause, were wounded, taken prisoner, and in … Continue reading

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Historic Detail in Minden’s Depression-Era Art

In a previous post on the NSHS blog, we told you about Nebraska’s twelve post office murals, as presented in Robert  Puschendorf’s new book Nebraska’s Post Office Murals: Born of the Depression, Fostered by the New Deal. One of the … Continue reading

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