Beer and Blood: The Butchers’ Picnic
The South Omaha butchers conceived the idea that it would be fun to stay away and play a practical joke on their Council Bluffs brethren, . . . They sent a defiant ...
Omaha Daily Bee
What We Found
A Census Taker’s Lament
In 1880 Omaha's notorious third ward included the heart of the city's gambling and prostitution. The character of the district created unique problems for federal census ...
A Real Romance
Valentine’s Day has long been the day to celebrate romantic love—but, as the Omaha Daily Bee pointed out on April 29, 1882, there’s “Nothing Like a Little Common Sense ...
Souvenir Spoons
Collecting souvenir spoons became a popular hobby for Americans in the late 1800s. Wealthy tourists visiting Europe brought home these mementos marked with the names of ...
A Question of Business: Will Machines Replace Stenographers?
In 1877 Thomas A. Edison invented a machine that could record and reproduce the human voice using a tinfoil-covered cylinder. Edison’s phonograph, his trade name for his ...
The Shoemaker’s Ashes
This example of a cinerary urn (at left) is from Hugo Erichsen’s The Cremation of the Dead (Detroit, 1887), published the year Edward Kuehl died.
“Edward Kuehl, one ...
A Midsummer Christmas Eve
This Christmas card from 1880 depicted a warm-weather scene similar to one actually experienced by Omahans on December 24 in 1889. Freakish weather is not unique ...
A Learning Vacation: Crete Chautauqua in 1886
Nebraska was a leader in the Chautauqua movement, which brought culture and entertainment to rural America. Thousands of Nebraskans spent as many as ten ...
Shoeing Omaha: “Attirement of Their Feet” in 1888
This advertisement (Left) for A. D. Morse’s Retail Shoe Store appeared in the Excelsior Family Directory of Omaha, 1890-91 (Omaha: Chase and Eddy).
Browsing through ...
Monarch’s Sad Fate
The sad end of a retired member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West was announced by the Omaha Daily Bee on December 5, 1906. However, the article, headlined “Death Warrant ...
The Rescue of Oscar Phelps
Clifton E. Mayne. From Omaha Illustrated (Omaha, 1888) (at left).
“Quite an exciting scene was witnessed last evening, on the river bank just opposite Boyd’s packing ...
Fire and Accident a Friend to Coyotes
Hunters exhibit their trophies following a hunt in Franklin County in January 1914. NSHS RG3367.PH3-23 (above).
Organized hunts for “wolves” (what we now call ...
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