Here's what you'll find in our current and most recent issues of Nebraska History.

Members receive four issues a year of NH, plus four issues of Nebraska History News.

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Spring 2013 Vol. 94, No. 1:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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Frank H. Shoemaker, Self-Made Naturalist and Photographer - Mary Ellen Ducey, Elaine Nowick, and Rebecca Bernthal

Through photography and extensive field notes, Shoemaker created a significant record of Nebraska landscapes, flora, and fauna during the early twentieth century.

Folkways of a One-House Legislature - State Senator Bill Avery (LD-28)

The Nebraska Unicameral has two sets of rules that govern how its members behave, one written and the other unwritten. The informal norms of behavior are at least as important as the formal rules. They are the folkways to which every senator must conform if he or she is to be an effective legislator.

“Send a Valentine to Your Valentine from Valentine, Nebraska”: The Cachet Program - Mary Ann May-Pumphrey

In 1941, the Valentine Post Office introduced a special Valentine’s Day postal cachet inspired by the town’s name. With thousands of people sending Valentines to be postmarked, the cachet program soon grew into a community volunteer effort.

The Folk Songs of Great Plains Homesteading: Anthems, Laments, and Political Songs - Dan Holtz

Homesteading songs illustrate the mindset of settlers, expressing their hopes, hardships, and demands for political action.

  Winter 2012 Vol. 93, No. 4:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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The Best-Dressed Doll in the World: Nebraska’s Own Terri Lee ∙ Tina Koeppe

Founded and run by women, the Terri Lee Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, was ahead of its time, introducing plastic dolls, including several black dolls, as early as 1947. With high-quality production standards and clever marketing materials that promoted Terri Lee as a companion and not just a doll, the toy caught the hearts and imaginations of little girls in a revolutionary way.

Illuminating the West: The Wonder of Electric Lighting at Omaha’s Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898 ∙ Amanda N. Johnson

Electric lighting was as important to the Omaha fair as the Ferris Wheel was to Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition: a focal point that garnered publicity and gate receipts while demonstrating the West’s technological and economic progress. The fair’s extensive use of outdoor incandescent lighting was unprecedented and an object of wonder to fairgoers.

  Fall 2012 Vol. 93, No. 3:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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The Gliddenites are Coming! Nebraska and the 1909 Glidden Tour - John T. Bauer

In July 1909, Nebraskans witnessed firsthand the most popular and spectacular Glidden Tour. This multi-state driving tour was not a race; it was a reliability run meant to challenge the driving skills of early automobilists and the reliability of their machines. The event promoted the automobile as a practical and desirable means of travel-a message that Nebraskans were already primed to accept.

Kate Martin and Lincoln's Historic St. Charles Hotel - Patricia C. Gaster

Located in what is now known as Lincoln's Haymarket District, the St. Charles Hotel served city residents and the traveling public from the 1860s until 1918, during which time Lincoln grew from a frontier settlement to a mature capital city. The hotel's story is intertwined with that of Catherine "Kate" Martin, an Irish immigrant whose career spanned four decades, three husbands, and two fires.

"Wearing the Hempen Neck-Tie": Lynching in Nebraska, 1858-1919 - James E. Potter

Whether the victims were accused of horse theft, murder, or rape, lynching is often viewed as frontier vigilantism that operated before the establishment of courts and law enforcement. This notion, however, does not square with the historical record of the more than fifty Nebraskans who died at the hands of lynch mobs.

  Summer 2012 Vol. 93, No. 2:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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"Big, Ugly Red Brick Buildings": The Fight to Save Jobbers Canyon - Daniel D. Spegel

Omaha city leaders touted the Jobbers Canyon warehouse district as a key to downtown redevelopment. But that was before a major employer decided it wanted the land. The ensuing struggle pitted the leverage of a Fortune 500 company against a vision of economic development through historic preservation. The result was the largest ever demolition of a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Shoulders of Atlas: Rural Communities and Nuclear Missile Base Construction in Nebraska, 1958-1962 - Nick Batter

Base construction for America's first intercontinental ballistic missile, the Atlas, pushed several rural Nebraska communities to the front lines of the Cold War. The project brought needed jobs to residents struggling through a sharp economic recession, but it also drew protestors who questioned the wisdom and morality of the nuclear program.

   Spring 2012 Vol. 93, No. 1:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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The Illustrator's Pencil: John Falter from Nebraska to the Saturday Evening Post - Deb Arenz

Born in Plattsmouth and raised in Falls City, John Falter became one of the nation's most successful illustrators because he knew how to capture the spirit of the times. His illustrations for ads, articles, and magazine covers provide a window into mid-twentieth century American culture.

Vox Populi of Omaha: Todd Storz and the Top 40 Radio Format in American Culture - Chris Rasmussen

Omaha radio station owner Todd Storz played a key role in pioneering the Top 40 format in the 1950s. He was a figure of national significance, permanently changing radio programming with an approach that was "vibrantly populist, crassly commercial, and undeniably young."

   Winter 2011 Vol. 92, No. 4:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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Horses: The Army's Achilles' Heel in the Civil War Plains Campaigns of 1864-65 - James E. Potter

Civil War armies relied heavily on horses. Armies in the field equipped with artillery, cavalry, and supply trains required one horse or mule, on average, for every two men. Horses fit for service became scarce by the war's final years. Far from the major eastern battlefields, regiments such as the First Nebraska Volunteer Cavalry felt the brunt of the equine shortage.

"How Shall We Make Beatrice Grow!": Clara Bewick Colby and the Beatrice Public Library Association in the 1870s - Kristin Mapel Bloomberg

For a young frontier town like Beatrice, a library wasn't just about books. It was also a means for propagating social values, and it created pathways for women to exercise leadership in the community. The town's first privately funded library faced challenges of censorship, public indifference, and competition from an unexpected rival.

"The Kingdom of Heaven at Hand": Rev. Russel Taylor and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1920s Omaha - Todd Guenther

In the racially charged atmosphere of 1920s Omaha, Russel Taylor-a minister, teacher, musician, activist, and former homesteader-threw himself into the struggle for dignity and civil rights. His story illustrates some of the difficulties facing black leaders during the generations between the end of slavery and the civil rights victories of the 1950s and 1960s.

  Fall 2011 Vol. 92, No. 3:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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Dan Desdunes: New Orleans Civil Rights Activist and "The Father of Negro Musicians of Omaha" - Jesse J. Otto

Dan Desdunes lived a remarkable life as a bandleader, educator, and civil rights activist. In his native New Orleans, he played a key role in an unsuccessful legal challenge to railway segregation that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision. In Omaha, he became a successful bandleader who also volunteered at Father Flanagan's Boys Home, where he trained the boys for fundraising musical tours.

The Nebraska Statesman: The People Behind the Picture - Patricia C. Gaster

An iconic Solomon Butcher photograph portrays a frontier newspaper office in Broken Bow. But the story of the two men who founded the short-lived paper has not been told until now. They came to central Nebraska full of ambition, but their lives soon went in very different directions.

"I Don't Know What We'd Have Done Without the Indians": Non-Indian and Lakota Racial Relationships in Box Butte County's Potato Industry, 1917-1960 - David R. Christensen

A labor shortage during World War I left western Nebraska potato farmers facing the loss of their crop. They brought in Lakota (Sioux) Indians as harvesters, beginning a tradition that lasted from 1917 through the 1950s. The story is one both of prejudice and understanding, cooperation and conflict--and of long-lasting relationships forged by economic necessity.

  Summer 2011 Vol. 92, No. 2:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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Main Street Empire: J. C. Penney in Nebraska - David Delbert Kruger

"For me, innately, cities were places to keep away from," said J. C. Penney. "Small towns were where I was at home." By the late 1920s, the company had stores in more than fifty Nebraska communities-more than any retailer before or since. Later the company evolved into a suburban shopping mall anchor, following a national trend toward larger (and fewer) stores serving larger regions.

Courtship of Two Doctors: 1930s Letters Spotlight Nebraska Medical Training - Martha H. Fitzgerald

Joe Holoubek and Alice Baker were medical students, he in Omaha and she in New Orleans. Holoubek's training assumed that most Nebraska doctors would make rural house calls and handle a variety of situations without timely access to hospitals or colleagues. Baker faced different challenges working in an overcrowded urban hospital. Their correspondence reveals the risks and day-to-day triumphs of 1930s medicine.

Postcards from Long Pine

Picture postcards from Nebraska's Hidden Paradise-and the brief messages on the back-provide glimpses of recreational travel in the 1910s and '20s.

Intersections of Place, Time, and Entertainment in Nebraska's Hidden Paradise - Rebecca A. Buller

What did rural Nebraska travel and recreation look like in the early-to-mid twentieth century? A forested canyon at Long Pine became popular at a time when ordinary Americans saw expanding opportunities for leisure and travel. Hidden Paradise drew travelers, first by rail and later by automobile, to stay in little cabins beside a creek and enjoy a mixture of outdoor recreation and live entertainment.

   Spring 2011 Vol. 92, No. 1:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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The Early Years of Talk Radio: WJAG, Norfolk, Nebraska - Mark Smith and Larry Walklin

Political talk dominates the AM airwaves today, but in 1946 an '47, Norfolk station WJAG found its broadcast license in jeopardy due to controversial on-air commentary.

"Painting the Town": How Merchants Marketed the Visual Arts to Nineteenth-Century Omahans - Jo L. Wetherilt Behrens

How does one build an art community in a frontier town? As Omaha grew, local merchants used their wealth and influence to promote art appreciation and the concept of art patronage.

The Political and Journalistic Battles to Create Nebraska's Unicameral Legislature - Thomas Irvin

Though Sen. George Norris was the unicameral's best-known promoter, he had important allies during the campaign of 1934.

  Fall / Winter 2010 Vol. 91, No. 3 & 4:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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African Americans in Nebraska: A Special Double Issue

Due to the great demand for this issue, we've posted it online in PDF documents. (If you can't open these files by clicking the links, download a free copy of Adobe Reader here.) A small number of printed magazines are still available through our Landmark Stores.

Contents

Introduction - David L. Bristow

"Equality Before the Law": Thoughts on the Origin of Nebraska's State Motto - James E. Potter

Always on My Mind: Frederick Douglass's Nebraska Sister - Tekla Ali Johnson, John R. Wunder, and Abigail B. Anderson

"A Double Mixture": Equality and Economy in the Integration of Nebraska Schools, 1858-1883 - David J. Peavler Trowbridge

Lest We Forget: The Lynching of Will Brown, Omaha's 1919 Race Riot - Orville D. Menard

The New Negro Movement in Lincoln, Nebraska - Jennifer Hildebrand

Mildred Brown and the De Porres Club: Collective Activism in Omaha, Nebraska's Near North Side, 1947-1960 - Amy Helene Forss

Postscript: Mocking the Klan - Deb Arenz

 

  Summer 2010 Vol. 91, No. 2:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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Letters from Home: Prisoner of War Mail at the Fort Robinson Camp during World War II - Thomas R. Buecker

A 1943 envelope illustrates the long and complicated process of sending and receiving mail between Nazi Germany and the Fort Robinson Prisoner of War Camp in Nebraska.

Signing the Pledge: George B. Skinner and the Red Ribbon Club of Lincoln - Patricia C. Gaster

From 1877 until well after 1900, Lincoln was the home of a vigorous temperance reform club that was said to surpass "in point of numbers, influence, and power any temperance club known in this country."

Camp Sheridan, Nebraska: The Uncommonly Quiet Post on Beaver Creek - Paul L. Hedren

Fort Robinson's early history is a narrative of one significant or calamitous event after another. Why was nearby Camp Sheridan so relatively quiet? Lakota leader Spotted Tail deserves the credit.

Nebraska Football and Michael Oriard's Bowled Over: A Review Essay - Russ Crawford

A recent book examines the politics and social changes of big-time college football during the past fifty years. Our reviewer examines issues of race, power, and money in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's storied football program.

 

   Spring 2010 Vol. 91, No. 1:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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The Plains Forts: A Harsh Environment - John D. McDermott

The United States Army had an almost impossible task to perform during the last half of the nineteenth century. Fewer than 15,000 men guarded some 3,000 miles of frontier and an equal length of seacoast. Making the mission more difficult on the western plains was an environment that could be frustrating, unrelenting, noxious, infectious, and lethal.

Soldiering in the Platte Valley, 1865: A Nebraska Cavalryman's Diary - August Scherneckau; Edited by James E. Potter and Edith Robbins, Translated by Edith Robbins

After serving for much of the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas, in August 1864 the First Nebraska Volunteer Cavalry was transferred to the Platte valley to guard the transcontinental telegraph line and overland stagecoach stations. Pvt. August Scherneckau's diary, the richest and most detailed record of a Nebraska soldier's Civil War service that has come to light, tells of duty marked by exhausting riding, billowing dust, tormenting insects, chilling winds, numbing boredom, and an occasional dash after Indians, whom the soldiers rarely caught.

 

   Winter 2009 Vol. 90, No. 4:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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Growing up on the Farm: Nebraska Farmer Youth Pages, 1904-1965 - Kylie Kinley

Nebraska Farmer magazine was the only outlet most rural Nebraska children had to reach the world outside their schools and farms. For half a century, they voiced their dreams, concerns, and questions in the magazine's youth column.

"Omaha Charley" and the Bristol Collection of Native American Artifacts - Tina Koeppe

Using the name "Omaha Charley," David Charles Bristol toured the United States during the 1870s-1890s, giving lectures about Native American life and culture and presenting a touring museum complete with Native American performers to entertain the crowds. What began as a sideshow attraction became one of the Nebraska History Museum's most significant collections.

Creating an "Image Center": Reimagining Omaha's Downtown and Riverfront, 1986-2003 - Janet R. Daly Bednarek

In 1986, downtown Omaha saw the loss of one major employer (Enron) and was facing the potential loss of another (ConAgra). The riverfront, meanwhile, was an industrial zone dominated by a lead refinery. Omaha's return to the river involved not just massive physical transformation, but an extensive reconceptualization of the downtown and riverfront.

For the People: Nebraska's New Deal Art - Deb Arenz

During a time of economic crisis, the federal government commissioned works of art that reflected the "American Scene." Here are selected works from a current exhibit at the Nebraska History Museum.

   Fall 2009 Vol. 90, No. 3:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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A Scandal in Niobrara: The Controversial Career of Rev. Samuel D. Hinman - Anne Beiser Allen

Accused of a "cool calculating evil" by his bishop and dismissed from his missionary post with the Santee Sioux in Niobrara, Nebraska, Samuel Hinman spent years trying to clear his name. Were the charges against him accurate, or was he targeted because of his progressive attitudes toward Native Americans?

Locating Callaway - Patricia C. Gaster

Founded in 1885, Callaway in Custer County experienced one of the hardest-fought town site battles in central Nebraska.

From Civilian Life to Army Life: Fred Pickering's World War I Narrative - Edited by Jeff Patrick

Though many Nebraskans served in the Great War, we have few war narratives written by them. Fred Pickering was a farmer from Ulysses, Nebraska, who wrote a lively account of army life for the folks back home.

   Summer 2009 Vol. 90, No. 2:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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Collecting Parks - Jill Koelling

A Lincoln couple's photographs and travel diaries are an important source documenting early travel to America's national parks.

The National Game at Cody - John Curtis Jenkins, with introduction and afterword by John E. Carter

Did a legendary Sandhills baseball game between the Spade and Diamond Bar ranches really take place in 1890? It turns out that a hilarious 1916 account of the game was based on real people and real events with some improvements.

Growing Celery in the Platte Valley - Patricia C. Gaster

A brief look at a forgotten experiment in Nebraska agriculture.

"Striving for Equal Rights for All": Woman Suffrage in Nebraska 1855-1882 - Kristin Mapel Bloomberg

For years, suffrage leaders such as Susan B. Anthony saw Nebraska as the nation's best hope to grant women the right to vote, but an 1882 statewide election caused the movement to rethink its national strategy.

  Spring 2009 Vol. 90, No. 1:    $7.00 (members, $6.30)

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"Out here among the infernal Red skins":
Frank Appleton's 1874 Letter from Red Cloud Agency

Frank Appleton was a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time-he just didn't know it yet.

Social Transformation and the Farmers' Alliance Experience:
Populism in Saunders County, Nebraska - John A. Sautter

Drought and depression led to radical politics in 1890s Nebraska. Saunders County didn't fit the typical profile, but became a Populist stronghold thanks to its robust Farmer's Alliance culture.

The Missouri National Recreational River:
An Unlikely Alliance of Landowners and Conservationists - Daniel D. Spegel

In 1978 lawmakers hailed a fragile alliance of landowners and conservationists who sought to protect a rare "natural" stretch of the Missouri River. The result was not what they expected.

The Clay County Pig Club Song, 1922

Club members sang the praises of modern hog farming practices.

Looking for "Wide-Awake" Young People:
Commercial Business Colleges in Nebraska, 1873-1950 - Oliver B. Pollak

High schools taught no office skills. Colleges taught the classics. By the late nineteenth century, entrepreneurs founded business colleges as an alternative to both.

 

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