Discover the History Nebraska Manuscript Collections

Blueprint drawing for the Lincoln Sport Plane, February 25, 1925. [RG3726.AM: Encil Chambers]

Lincoln Sport Plane, blueprint drawing [RG3726.AM: Encil Chambers]

For this October’s celebration of Archives Month, we would like to tell you a little more about accessing the manuscript collections here at History Nebraska.  When we use the term, “manuscript,” here at HN, it refers to any set of documents in our collections that come from a private source.  Our manuscript collections include the personal papers of families and individuals, as well as records relating to businesses and organizations.  To see a listing of all of our different manuscript collections, visit our Manuscript Collections page on our website.  The listings are alphabetical by type, including Business Records, Church Records, Family/Individual Records, Organizational Records, and Political RecordsItems within the collections may include letters, diaries, financial statements, minutes of meetings, legal documents, architectural drawings, etc.  To make the collections more accessible, we try to provide detailed inventories of what all is contained within each collection.  These inventories, or “finding aids,” are then linked to the appropriate collection name listed on the website.

 

So, if you know you are interested in records relating to the Royal Highlanders out of Aurora, Nebraska, or the Northwestern School of Taxidermy out of Omaha, you can click on the links and bring up the detailed inventory for each collection.  If you don’t know what specific collection you are interested in, you can browse the alphabetical listings or you can always do a key word search using the “Search” icon located at the top right of each page on our website.  While we don’t have detailed inventories available online for each and every collection, we are always working to place more online.  If you see a listing for a collection you are interested in, want to order copies, or just have questions about a collection, you can always contact our Reference Services department for more information.

 

Correspondence course catalog for the Northwestern School of Taxidermy (Omaha, Neb.) [RG5451.AM]

Course catalog, Northwestern School of Taxidermy [RG5451.AM]

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About NSHS

The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded in 1878 by citizens who recognized Nebraska was going through great changes and they sought to record the stories of both indigenous and immigrant peoples. It was designated a state institution and began receiving funds from the legislature in 1883. Legislation in 1994 changed NSHS from a state institution to a state agency. The division is headed by Interim Director Cindy Drake. They are assisted by an administrative staff responsible for financial and personnel functions, museum store services, security, and facilities maintenance for NSHS.

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