MSS. Manuscripts

Content Description The Metropolitan Community Church of Omaha (MCC Omaha) was chartered in 1974 as the first church in Omaha with positive ministry activities to the LGBTQ+ community. The MCC Omaha Records are comprised of 2.5 cubic feet of documents and photographs from 1959 through 2017 with the bulk of items dated 1973 to 1975 and 1996 to 2003. Photographs of church events and other activities from 1987 through 2003 make up most of the collection. There is a gap in materials from 1975 through the mid-1990s,...

Content Description The papers of Mildred Brodt document her life from young adulthood in rural Nebraska, serving in the Women's Army Corps in Papua New Guinea during World War II, working as one of the first women civilians with the Occupational Forces in Tokyo, Japan, and her careers and life after returning to the United States. Robust correspondence is available from her time working abroad and in Washington, D.C. as well as with her future husband Warren Brodt. Mildred also traveled domestically and...

Scope and Contents The Miscellaneous Map Collection is comprised of 20 maps from various sources including both published, tracings, and reproductions. The majority depict the City of Omaha, Nebraska, and surrounding region, including Douglas County, Sarpy County, and the Papillion Creek and its tributaries. Individual maps of Iowa, Kansas, the Mississippi and Missouri Region, and the Oregon Trail are also included. Most of the maps are from the 1930s through the 1970s. Several are undated. The earliest map...

Content Description The Mount Pleasant Mining Company collection is composed of two letters regarding the Mount Pleasant mine in El Dorado County, California at Grizzly Flat located 28 miles from Placerville. The first letter dated May 16, 1894, is a copy of a letter to lawyer Archibald B. McGaw in New York City from James D. Hague, president of the Mount Pleasant Mining Company describing the mine. The typewritten letter of December 12, 1896, is a cover to this copy sent to James McCaw in Chicago from Murat...

Content Description

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.

Content Description Organizational records of Mu Sigma, an Omaha club for women, that includes meeting minutes, membership lists, lists and descriptions of each year's programs, and related records of the study group's operations. There is a nearly complete record of meeting minutes beginning in 1892 and membership books and directories beginning in 1895. Digital copies of Mu Sigma's earliest meeting minutes books from 1892-1917 were previously created through the group's partnership with Marian High School and...

Scope and Contents

Name? Rank? And Serial Number? For you the War is Over is an unpublished manuscript by Louis H. Breitenbach. This copy is a photocopy of Breitenbach's typescript, including copies of drawings by Breitenbach, photographs, maps, letters, articles, and other documents related to Breitenbach's experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II.

Content Description 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...

Content Description The National Association of Soda Jerks collection contains information about the membership organization (4 cubic feet), media coverage (2 cubic feet), its national conventions (2 cubic feet), and recollections shared by people who worked as soda jerks and business that included soda fountains (6 cubic feet).New material added October 15, 2021: Recollections shared by soda jerks, media coverage, and administrative information regarding the National Association of Soda Jerks,...

Content Description The Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP) collection is primarily composed of photographs in print along with negatives and some digital images. The topics of the photographs include a variety of NAP activities including the annual AIDS Walk, Night of 1,000 Stars, volunteer appreciation events, other events, as well as NAP’s former building. Celebrities participating in events include Olympian Greg Louganis, actress Shirley MacLaine, and comedian Joan Rivers. Documents are primarily related to...

Content Description The 42 interviews span a wide range of subjects, including civil rights efforts at the University of Nebraska, the work of Nebraska State Senator Edward Danner, school desegregation, and labor conditions. Interviews conducted over a two-year period, 1980-1982, for a project funded by the Nebraska Committee for the Humanities, and sponsored by the Black Studies Department, UNL; The Great Plains Black [History] Museum; and the Nebraska Association for the Study of African American...

Content Description A photo album of a white family from Omaha, Nebraska includes photographs of adults and children around the home and in a rural setting. Notable photos include a series from the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha including a see-saw ride, "The Old Plantation" stage, Arch of States, streets of all nations featuring a camel, the lagoon, the administration building, and others. A photograph of a tree is identified as "the surrender tree - San Juan Hill - Santiago"...

Scope and Contents 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 1942, with some gaps. Scattered issues of the League of Women Voters Nebraska Bulletin (1922-1923) and The...

Scope and Contents The records of Nebraska Shakespeare includes material from its founding in 1986 to the present, documenting the history of the organization, its administration, and its productions. The collection includes production binders (1987-2007), programs, posters, publicity material, reviews, photographs, slides, meeting minutes, bylaws, schedules, fiscal information, inventory information, staff information, correspondence, planning documents, board of directors records, press releases, news...

Content Description The letter addressed to Socrates Ayres is dated March 1, 1855, and sent from Davenport, Iowa, to Socrates. The letter was sent by Nicoll Ayres who is believed to be Socrates brother. Nicoll (or perhaps Niall?) references that he is recovering his health and wondering about business and employment opportunities in Omaha. He also makes mention of another brother, Stephen. He asks of his brother, in part, "The gist of the question is, will not the advantages for which I come west be better...

Content Description 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,...

Content Description

A photo album belonging to a young white woman who attended Omaha Central High School. The album includes photographs of friends and family around Omaha and its environs including their homes. Some photographs are identified either by name such as Mel, Mabel, Ruth Guss, or Rex the dog or by their association to the photo album compiler such as noting that someone was their teacher or a classmate at Central High School.

Scope and Contents The Omaha Chamber of Commerce Records cover business and industry in Omaha, Nebraska, spanning the period from 1912 until 1979. The records include meeting minutes from various committees and bureaus, the Chamber's newsletter (1912-1941 as Journal, 1941-1956 as News Bulletin, 1959-2004 as Profile), photographs, negatives, slides, newspaper clippings, correspondence, pamphlets, books and journals collected and used by the Chamber, and files with information about various businesses,...

Scope and Contents

The Omaha Covid-19 collection was created to document the experiences of the Omaha community during the covid-19 pandemic. The collection includes paper and digital materials from muliple donors. Contributers include Omaha businesses, Omaha community members, and UNO. Currently, the collection includes materials from 2020 to the present, as of February 10th, 2021, but collection is ongoing and will continue to grow. Some of the digital materials are available at covid19Omaha.omeka.net.

Content Description

A small collection of canceled checks and circular letter from local business the Omaha Crockery Co. The 1906 circular letter promotes subscriptions to trade magazine Manufacturer and Merchant (Room 505, Paxton Block, Omaha) to "Western merchants" and storekeepers. One check from 1903 is made out to Omaha Merchant Exp. Co. in the amount $187.63 from Merchants National Bank. Two checks from 1929 to Union Pacific Railroad in the amounts $1.51 and $45.60 from Omaha National Bank.

Content Description Records of the Omaha Magical Society include materials by and about the Omaha Magical Society (circa 1990-2014); organizational documents of other magical societies, notably the Society of American Magicians (parent organization of the Omaha Magical Society) (circa 1900-2003), the International Brotherhood of Magicians (1926-2003), and The Magic Circle (1958-1991); and event programs from various magicians conferences and gatherings (1938-2009).Materials by and about the Omaha...

Content Description

The Omaha Music Collection documents Omaha musicians including bands, solo artists, composers, and collaborations. Material collected includes recordings as well as ephemeral material such as promotional stickers, buttons, and other material. The collection is open to material from most genres of music with new material added through purchases, free digital downloads or promotional material, and donations to the repository. See series descriptions for more detailed descriptions.

Content Description

The collection of documentary films, unedited video interviews, and supporting documents for the Omaha Public Schools Making Invisible Histories Visible program for the 2017-2018 summer programs document music genres in Omaha. Topics include jazz, hip hop, funk, polka, women in indie music, Mexican American music, and music of new immigrants to the U.S. The 2019 projects were about some of Omaha's neighborhoods.

Scope and Contents 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,...

Content Description

The records of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra predominantly document performances and public activities of the organization. The collection includes marketing and promotional materials (mostly late 1980s to the 2010s), concert programs, scrapbooks containing news clippings and ephemera (1950s-1980s), and other records. A small number of photographs (undated) and posters (predominantly 2000s) are also part of the collection. Audio and video recordings are not part of the collection.

Scope and Contents 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...

Content Description

The Omaha Zine Ephemera Collection includes business cards, fliers, prints, and ephemera created by zine creators and programs from Omaha Zine Fest. The zine creators primarily, but not exclusively, are from Omaha. The ephemera was gathered or received by library employees between March 2017 and April 2019, primarily at Omaha Zine Fests.

Content Description The Omaha Zoo Foundation films include over 170 films documenting animals and zoos in the mid-twentieth century. The films include coverage of various animals, construction at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, as well as a small number of other U.S. zoos. Animals documented included a variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish with well-known animals like Casey, a gorilla who came to Omaha from Minnesota’s Como Zoo in the 1960s, featured. Other primates as well as hoofstock and...

Scope and Contents The records of Opera Omaha include material from before its founding in the 1950s to the present, documenting the history of the organization, its administration, and its productions. The collection holds board meeting minutes (1958-1994), news clippings (1954-1990), audio and video recordings (1960s-2000s), as well as scrapbooks, photographs, negatives, slides, programs, posters, original artwork, and related material. A portion of the collection is material collected by Cele Washington...

Content Description The diary of Otis W. Smith documents his life beginning with his enrollment in the College of Pharmacy in St. Louis, Missouri through his working life, marriage, and family life. The diary mentions attending his first masquerade ball, taking the first woman he was not related to out, meeting his wife Mattie Dowdall and their courtship, the birth of their son, information about their home, people he meets, purchases he makes including two 'Indian clubs' and a pistol. The following...