Trash to Treasure
This Great Depression Era hand-painted ad for Advo Coffee was in bad shape when it arrived at our Ford Conservation Center.
It was split into pieces, warped, and ...
Omaha
What We Found
What happened when a million Nebraskans drank Polio Punch
In 1962 Nebraskans organized the largest mass vaccination campaign in the state’s history. An estimated 1 million Nebraskans drank polio vaccine at a series of “Sabin ...
Can You Dig It?
The Ford Center is also currently treating some archeological objects that will be used in the Nebraska History Museum's upcoming exhibit on Nebraska archeology, ...
Omaha and the “Red Summer” of 1919
World War I was over, but the nation was not at peace. Omaha was “a city in ferment,” torn by strikes, food shortages, and racial resentment. By September the city was ...
Did Claude Nethaway murder his wife and frame an innocent man?
By David L. Bristow, Editor
Content Warning: This post quotes offensive, racist language and includes a detailed depiction of a murder scene.
His business card ...
A Horse Rescue on the Icy Missouri
What was a valuable racehorse doing on the icy Missouri River in January 1882? Men from a local packinghouse mobilized, but would they save the horse before it was swept ...
Omaha’s Lillie Williams became a professional bicycle racer in 1889
Starting in the high-wheel bicycle era, Lillie Williams of Omaha became a multi-sport professional athlete at a time when women’s sports were widely regarded as improper ...
Who killed South Omaha’s mayor? Anti-Catholicism in Omaha in 1892
Though it looked like a suicide, an organization called the American Protective Association was convinced that the death of South Omaha’s mayor was a Catholic plot. The ...
A Farm Boy Comes to Omaha, 1888
"I guess there ain’t any end to Omaha,” wrote sixteen-year-old Frisby Rasp in a letter to his parents in 1888. “You can walk till you are tired out in any direction you ...
Conserving a 224-Year-Old Gift Given to Chief Blackbird
When this document arrived at our Ford Conservation Center, it was in pretty rough shape. Thankfully, Hilary LeFevere, our expert Paper Conservator at the Ford Center, ...
Retrospective on 1968
TV was full of protesters demonstrating everywhere, sometimes setting fires and breaking windows. What was happening to our country? I’ve been asking that same question ...
The Girls of Company Z
An 1890s Omaha photo shows three young women dressed in what look like men’s military cadet uniforms. It was frowned upon for women to be dressed in such a manner, so ...
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