Historical Material from UNO Libraries' Archives & Special Collections

Travel diary of a woman believed to be Anna Perainen from the Midwest visiting the West Coast of the United States. She visited Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Canada.
A partial transcription of the journal entries was provided by the seller.

The papers of Belle Hauser are composed of six diaries and a small amount of correspondence. Hauser was a teacher in Pennsylvania, which she discussed in her diaries. Her collection makes reference to her interest in and perhaps involvement in the Temperance Movement and the Democratic Party. One of her letters discusses the evils of liquor (possibly a portion of a speech).

The autograph album of Bethel Vaughn of Fullerton, Nebraska, includes entries to the young girl from family, friends, and a teacher. All rhymes and notes to the child are dated 1911-1913. The decorative cover of the autograph album is green with gold detail and a rural image of two cows near a small body of water.

A scrapbook kept by white husband and wife Horace and Edith Hager on a road trip across the United States and briefly Canada in the mobile home trailer in 1948. The couple departed their New Jersey home pulling their new trailer they named "Ched." Edith or "Ede" and Horace or "Chap" along with their dog Candy are shown posing around the trailer in May 1948 before their departure. Photographs on their trip depict sites, people, animals, scenery, and other aspects of their trip. Included are photos of: bison ("buffalo") grazing east of Grand Island, Nebraska; Lookout Mountain and Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado; New Mexico; Horse Head on Blue Mountain and ranch hands in Monticello, Utah; Yellowstone National Park; and others. After Yellowstone the couple began their trip back to the east visiting Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Ontario, and New York. The final page of the album includes the notes "March – 1948 Yellowstone (indecipherable) / Omaha Neb. / Sept 30th 1948 / June".

The diaries of Edna Earl Martin McGuire span 1900 through 1905. McGuire wrote her name in the front of each of the two diaries, which are labeled book 3 and book 4. There is no documentation about books 1 and 2. The diaries document McGuire's daily life in Missouri including farm tasks, travel to neighboring communities and states, life with her husband Uncas McGuire as well as medical procedures she underwent. Also included is a photograph of McGuire.

The diary of Elgia Leila (Wittwer) Dawley from 1921-1925 spans her years teaching French and voice in New York through her marriage in 1922, and move to Olympia, Washington. The diary includes entries for the same date for five years on the same page.

The diary of Emma Frost, a 24 year old woman from Detroit, Michigan, documents her social activities, amusements, and household activities in 1914. She mentions spending time at a yacht club, her maid, attending dances and movies, painting, trips to River Side Park, dates with men, a summer trip to Georgian Bay and Mackinac Island, and other activities. Frost used several pages in the back of the diary for expenses and as an address book.

The five year diary of Gardia Reta (Peaker) Bailey documents life in the western United States during the Great Depression. The family lives in a trailer and stays at auto parks, such as the Wallow Saw Auto Camp, on the West Coast including in the state of Washington. Included in the diary are various pieces of ephemera including news clippings and photographs as well as notations about family members and birthdays. The diary mentions the family traveling to sell Reta's handmade baskets, illnesses such as mumps and small pox, boat rides on the Columbia River, traveling through Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, trips to Portland, fishing trips, dances, trips to the ocean, having a float in a parade, and giving birth to a stillborn baby.

Travel album or scrapbook documenting the trip of Gertrude Ball, Ridgway Ball, and Della Clapper from Omaha, Nebraska to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Their trip is narrated with extensive handwritten text in the album and includes photographs, postcards, and ephemera.

The handwritten daily diary of Gladys I. Baldwin includes a few gelatin silver prints and some images, probably harvested from a high school yearbook. The diary covers the period when Gladys Baldwin of Kansas City, Missouri was in high school and it contains "details of her daily life, schooling, and social functions, and which includes among other things, an account of her consultation with a faith healer. In the opening pages of the diary, her mother is ill and Gladys is forced to stay home from school to keep house. On Thursday, Nov. 5, 1908, she writes about going to see a healer: "This morning Mama and I went to see the Rev. Dr. E.J. Osborn, pastor of Bennington Church at 923 Newton Ave. He is a healer and has done wonderful in the way of curing sick people. He gave me a treatment for my head, using these methods, osteopath, hypnotism and Christian Science. Although he did not say so I can see it. He rubbed my neck and soothed my nerves and said 'Now you are calm and composed and have no head ache and etc.' He is very much like science." A variety of small photographs of people she interacted with are pasted into the diary, among them Lenora Stubbs, the daughter of W.R. Stubbs, the 18th Governor of the State of Kansas. She appears to have had a close relationship with the Stubbs family, mentioning she wrote to Stella Stubbs, and that she and her father both received a letter on November 15, 1908 from Governor Stubbs: "He signed himself as uncle to me," she wrote."

The diaries of Hallie Miles document her life in Danville, Indiana from 1940-1945, including activities at her church, sewing, visiting with friends and family, choir rehearsal, and similar activities. She mentions giving lessons to children in her home. She comments on world events such as the death of President Franklin Roosevelt and the end of World War II. Her diaries also contain many news clippings, notes, and other bits of ephemera such as a WWII ration stamps envelope. Miles used a variety of types of diaries including desk calendar style, a diary provided by an insurance company, and embossed covers.

The papers of Hattie Lynde of Parkers Prairie and Waubun, Minnesota include a diary she kept in 1918, two postcards mailed to her husband Cornelisu V. Lynde while she was traveling with their son Kenneth in the western U.S., and an application to join the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1905. Lynde's diary shares her daily life including moving to a new town as well as life in a doctor's household during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic (referred to as the Spanish Influenza) and her take on events during the final months of World War I.

The papers of John Wells and Sarah Wells are primarily correspondence between the couple with a small number of letters from John to another woman who appeared to be a family member or friend of Sarah as well as several photographs of John posing in various outdoor settings. The majority of the correspondence is letters from Sarah in the South (Georgia and Alabama) to John in New York offering information about her daily life and discussing their relationship. Their relationship grew over time from courting or dating to marriage.

The scrapbook of Joyce Storm is from the period in 1943 when she was hospitalized at the St. Joseph’s hospital in Omaha, Nebraska where she was given the Sister Kenny treatment for her polio. Storm’s scrapbook is largely composed of greeting cards sent to her while she was away from her home in Royal, Nebraska along with a few letters and news clippings about her hospitalization. The greeting cards are typical of the period and include contemporary topics such as references to World War II rationing.

The papers of June Turney include correspondence written to family and friends when she was a teenager or young woman in the late 1930s during the Great Depression. The letters were sent from June Turney’s time at Moss Lake Summer Camp in Eagle Bay, New York and a later trip to California.

The papers of Katie Johnson of Newport, New Hampshire, include six letters from her sister Emma Kimball and her mother in Vermont. The letters cover typical family matters including accidents, weather, fires, farming matters including new lambs and crops, maple syrup season, illnesses, socializing, and other matters.

The diary of Lelia Ackley from July-August 1905 documents her family's move to Idaho, first to a cabin near Big Rock. The Ackleys would later move to Caldwell, Idaho and operate a general merchandise store. The Ackleys traveled via horse and wagon in July 1905 searching for a claim to stake for gold mining in the mountains southeast of Boise, Idaho. The Ackleys were searching for a cabin near Big Rock; along the way they stopped at a place called the Golden Eagle for water. Lelia Ackley describes the cabin as filthy and infested with rats, while the baby was sunburned badly on the trip. She mentions the Bender Creek property where her husband and another man went to search for a claim. They also mention a location called the Flat Creek property. Eventually Orville chose to establish a general merchandise store. There are 14 pages of entries for a store from 1927. They appeared to be doing very well. Their daughter Helen is listed as one of the payees.

The diary of Helen W. Ackley, daughter of Lelia and Orville Ackley, is from her time as a nursing student at Berkeley Hospital in California in 1933-1934. The diary shares discusses her experiences while training to be a nurse. She was excited to work in the obstetrics and maternity department helping to deliver babies. She also writes about her unpleasant experiences including the death of at least one patient, meningitis, and other diseases and conditions. She also writes about local events including the lynching of a man who kidnapped and murdered Brooke Hart of San Jose, visiting Chinatown, a boat ride on San Francisco Bay, and a large street car strike that resulted in the National Guard moving into the city with tanks and over 4,000 troops.

The diary of Lucy Brunetta Nettie Gudgeon Moon for the years 1890-1899 includes regular entries for the first years of the diary becoming less frequent in the later years. Lucy Moon recounts activities of her daily life including social interactions, her children, various activities of her church, and health matters of their family as well as others related to her husband's career as a physician or doctor in general practice.

The autograph book of Marie Engelkew includes brief personal messages and quotations from friends in family. Most of the messages date from 1894 with others dated 1895, 1900, and 1901. The messages are predominantly from Grand Island, Nebraska and the Academy of the Visitation in Dubuque, Iowa. A cutout of a dog is pasted on the first page of the autograph book. The autograph book is in the shape of a rhombus with a wooden cover (perhaps walnut) and teal velvet binding and back cover.

The collection is comprised of the personal effects of Mary Ellen Williamson relating to her service as a Women Airforce Service Pilot during World War II (1943-1944). The collection includes photographs, awards, certificates, official documents, forms, correspondence, WASP class books (44-W-10 and 44-W-7), maps, CD-ROMS of ceremonies, a commemorative medal, and needlecraft artwork depicting an aircraft with the phrase "I'd rather be flying."

The collection is composed of the letters of Mrs. R.E. Moreland from her home in San Diego, California, to her mother Mrs. W.H.H. Leck in Linn, Kansas, from 1924-1925. The collection also includes a single letter from 1930 to Mrs. Byron Leck. The letters cover homelife and other matters such as the activities of the baby in the Moreland home. Additional description and research is required to determine the names of the correspondents and more details shared in the letters.

The diary of Nancy Pettit McLaughlin documents her daily life after her marriage in Shiloh, Ohio. The entries reveal the activities of McLaughlin's daily life including what appears to be marital problems as she refers to "separating" from her husband in at least one instance. She also references her sister Amelia applying for a divorce. The diary's entries are regular for January-June 1898 and then cease until entries resume in 1903. The ledger also includes pages of expense at the back of the volume. Names mentioned in the diary include : William Henry, Aunt Jane Rockman, Andrew and Gart Snyder, Uncle G. T. Nelson, S. Ferrel, Eli and Frank Swanger, Elmer Hammond, John Wolf, Ezra Cleland, Willard Grub, Dan Carl, Hank McCasky, Edith Shoemaker, Bloom, Murry, Milt Canton, Hollenbaugh, Charlie Champion, Samuel Bray, Reverend Rhodes and others. Also part of the collection is a carte de visite identified in later handwriting as Nancy Pettit McLaughlin and printouts of two photographs of Shiloh found online by the previous owner.

The Nebraska League of Women Voters Collection comprises newsletters, pamphlets, questionnaires, voter guides, and other documents produced by the League of Women Voters of Nebraska, along with smaller selection of similar materials from the Omaha League of Women Voters and the National League of Women Voters. League of Women Voters materials span the time period from 1922 until 1943, with some gaps.

The Norma Howe papers contain letters written to Miss Norma Louise Howe attending school in Urbana, Illinois (presumably at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) from correspondents in Illinois and Iowa from June 1949 through January 1950. Correspondents include her mother and at least one friend covering typical topics including updates on family members’ health and jobs, entertainments, and news of other friends and family. The collection also includes a small number of photographs, presumably of Howe and her friends at college.

The records of the Omaha Symphony Guild document events organized by the group as well as governance functions of the board of directors from circa 1990-2011 with gaps in the records. Organizational records include the secretary’s notebooks (2003-2006), treasurer’s notebooks and reports (1999-2005, Omaha Symphony Guild Advisor, as well as material created by other officers including the President, Executive Committee, Board of Directors, President-Elect, Vice President for Administration, Vice President for Education.

The Omaha Theater Company Records contain materials from 1949 to the present, documenting the history of the organization, its administration, and its productions. The organization changed names during the covered period, starting as the Omaha Junior Theater in 1948, becoming the Emmy Gifford Children's Theater in 1977, and becoming the Omaha Theater Company for Young People in 1993, eventually shortening the name to the Omaha Theater Company. The group performed in the Center Theater from 1974 until 1993, when they moved into the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center, commonly known as The Rose.

The Queer Omaha Archives Ephemera Collection is material collected or received from various sources including organizations, businesses, and individuals. The collection includes brochures, fliers, business cards, and other similar material documenting events, services, businesses, and other activities.

The scrapbook of Sarah Finch was created by re-using the ledger of an unidentified business. Miss Finch’s scrapbook includes sheet music, poetry, news clippings, and illustrations. The sheet music includes a printed sheet as well as the handwritten Stephen C. Fosters song "Hard Times." The merchant’s entries cover approximately 100 pages and identification of the merchant may be possible with further study.

The diary of Susan Haney documents the daily activities of this young girl and teenager. She is presumed to live in western Nebraska as she mentions visiting North Platte, Nebraska. Haney’s entries in her diary reference typical childhood and youth activities such as attending piano lessons, Girl Scouts, choir practice, and hunting along with family events such as the wedding of her brother Bill, the death of her grandfather, and visiting family and friends. The diary is a five year diary, but most entries are for 1955-1957 with minimal entries for later.

The Vivian Robenstein collection contains letters and postcards sent to teenager and young woman Vivian Robenstein my multiple friends. The topics of the letters include romances and relationships, dances, becoming an adult, working as a hairdresser or hairstylist, driving in cars, and other interests and activities of daily life.

Diary of Wanda E. Kathcart, an approximately 20 year old working woman from Galesburg, Illinois from May-December 1914. She discusses her daily activities including work, church, social activities, her on-and-off boyfriend, and other routine matters.

Diary of a young woman from a privileged background writing in the first half of the 1920s. Topics covered in her diary entries include yacht clubs, dancing, parties, golfing, tennis, trips to New York and California, as well as other topics. Places mentioned include White Sulphur, New Brighton, Farmington, Rolling Rock, New York, Bellows Falls, and others. The diary begins on November 6, 1920, and continues through 1924. The diarist’s birthday is December 1st and she is 19 years old when she begins the diary in 1920.

The collection was created by an unidentified young woman and includes her diary with entries from January-July 1942 and six letters from January-February 1944. The diary begins with a brief recap of 1941 and continues to document the author’s interest in securing a civil service position in Washington, D.C. during World War II, working in government positions (including doing indexing) and the Observer newspaper, listening to President Franklin Roosevelt on the radio, and other facets of her daily life on the home front during wartime through detailed entries. Also included is a photograph, which may or may not be the creator of the material.

Organizational records of Mu Sigma, a woman's club in Omaha, that includes meeting minutes, membership lists, lists and descriptions of each year's programs, and related records of the group's operations. There is a nearly complete record of meeting minutes beginning in 1892 and membership books and directories beginning in 1895.

The Matinee Musicale Club Records document the activities of the Omaha club through programs, news clippings, correspondence, and other records. Much of the collection was originally arranged in scrapbooks and binders before being disassembled.

The papers of Dorothy Patach document her travels around the United States and international trips, her community involvement, and her career in nursing and nursing education. Documentation of Patach’s trips include scrapbooks, photographs, postcards, and ephemera from the 1930s to the late 20th century. Patach traveled throughout Nebraska and the Midwest, the West, and other parts of the U.S. There were many trips to California especially as her father worked in California for many years and in the summers Dorothy and her mother would travel from Omaha to see her father in California. The documentation of trips also includes a trip to China as part of an international nursing education group in the mid-1980s after President Ronald Reagan’s visit in 1984. Calendar pages from an Omaha Chinese restaurant with stereotypical depictions of Chinese people are also from this time period. Patach also visited Eastern Europe in the 1980s. The collection also includes an early 20th century ledger for a community organization kept by her father (possibly the Czech American Sokol organization), a group photo of employees of an Omaha company (Dorothy’s father is a tall man in a suit on the right side of the photo), and other family photos and albums or scrapbooks.

Nearly every issue of UNO’s student newspaper, The Gateway , is available on-line stretching back to the 1920s.

During Professor Lourdes Gouveia’s research she acquired and organized in file folders a considerable amount of information about Latino immigrants in the Nebraska meat packing industry, particularly in Lexington, Nebraska. The collection includes census materials, periodical articles, and interviews. The collection also contains audio cassettes of interviews, three atlases, and grant reports and other material about OLLAS (the Office of Latino and Latin American Studies) at the University of Nebraska of Omaha of which Gouveia was the director.

The Mary Mudd Women of Color Awards Collection comprises the records of the Women of Color Awards (WOC), including foundational material that predates the awards. The Women of Color Awards were started in 2003 by Mary Mudd of UNO, Shari Clarke of the University of Nebraska president's office, and other UNO staff members. Awards are given to women of color from the Omaha community in areas of arts and humanities, business/entrepreneurship, community service, education, youth leadership, and (beginning in 2006) science and technology. The last awards were issued in 2008. The collection includes reports, record books, guides, notes, stationery, planning documents, resource manuals, newsletters, records of the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Chancellor's Commission on Multicultural Affairs (dating from 2000), WOC award information, honoree information, WOC committee records, Diversity Awards nominations, and VHS videocassette recordings of WOC award ceremonies.

This collection includes organizational records from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and its predecessors, the Municipal University of Omaha and the University of Omaha, dating from the institution's founding in 1908 to the present. Records originated from many colleges, schools, departments, offices, committees, faculty and staff organizations, student organizations, and alumni. Materials include publications, event programs, conference materials, publicity material, meeting minutes, correspondence, budget information, internal reports, policies, architectural drawings, photographs, and miscellaneous records from various UNO and UNO-affiliated groups or relating to UNO people, buildings, events, and academic programs.

The UNO Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women Records comprise the print materials created by or gathered by the University of Nebraska at Omaha Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women. The records cover the period from circa 1971 to the present. Included are annual reports, awards luncheon information, budget information, documents relating to issues of concern, constitution/guidelines, correspondence, endowment fund information, membership information, minutes and agendas, programs presented, projects, scholarships, subcommittee records, surveys and responses, and miscellaneous.

The UNO Department of Gerontology Collection comprises works produced by and resources used by the Gerontology Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha from about 1975 until about 2010. It includes various research reports, conference proceedings, and programs; "Planning the Third Age" (1976) facilitator's manual, student worksheets, slides, and audio cassettes; "Celebrate: A Collection of Writings By and About Women" (serial, 1997-2010); "The Enduring Spirit: Women as We Age" audio cassette series (1995); a sensory deprivation simulation with book, slides, and audio; the "Retirement" board game (1975); and the "Coming of Old Age in Samoa" slides, index, and audio cassette (1979).

This accession includes material produced as well as collected by the UNO Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. The bid proposal for the 2018 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC) to be held at the University of Nebraska at Omaha includes information about the university particularly its recent LGBTQIA history and activities, the proposed theme of intersectionality, potential programs and events, letters of support, and other information. The final printed paper version and an electronic copy of the bid are included. Also included is ephemera from Heartland Pride, the River City Mixed Chorus, the 11th annual Tom Mahony Pride Prom in 2015 (sponsored by Proud Horizons, Heartland Pride, GLSEN Omaha, and ICON), the 2015 Youth Diversity Leadership Summit (sponsors include Queer People of Color Nebraska and Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition), and a 2015 Omaha World-Herald news article.

The UNO Legendary Women Collection includes historical source material, such as papers and photographs, that was consulted by a CCSW committee during the annual selection process for the UNO Legendary Woman. Also included are materials generated for the CCSW Luncheon announcing and honoring the Legendary Woman, including programs, fliers, bookmarks, and other promotional materials. The collection is arranged by year and recipient.

The records of the Queer and Trans Services (formerly Gender and Sexual Orientation) student agency include posters and fliers, handmade signs for protests or rallies, training and orientation material, office files, photos, and other material. Some of the handmade signs were made and used in response to an itinerant evangelical preacher who frequently visits campus and espouses his beliefs that include condemnation and hate outside of the Milo Bail Student Center. The collection documents the agency’s organization as part of UNO Student Government as well as its activities and the activities of other campus and Omaha-area LGBTQIA groups.

Collection of materials created by or related to the University of Nebraska at Omaha Women's Club, from 1937 through the present. Includes meeting minutes, budget information, information on interest groups within the organization, information about scholarships offered by the organization, memorabilia from special events, press clippings, the organization's constitution and bylaws, membership information, directories, newsletters, photographs, and documents describing the organization's history.

The records of the UNO Women’s Resource Center student agency include administrative material created by the student agency as well as print and digital photographs (circa 1995-2014) and newsletters (circa 1995-1998) documenting the organization’s activities. A statement of purpose for the Women’s Resource from 1977 is the oldest document in the collection with most of the rest of the collection dating from circa 1995-2015. The collection includes twelve signs created for the 2015 Homecoming drag show; one sign was deliberately ripped as part of that production.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha yearbook was known as the Gateway from 1915-1927; then changed names to the Omahan from 1928-1929; then changed names to the Tomahawk from 1936-1970; then changed names to Breakaway from 1971-1972; before ending as the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Maverick from 1973-1975. The first yearbook, the Gateway (1915-1927), shares its name with the university’s longtime student newspaper. No yearbook was published in 1930-1935.