Omaha Collection

The Omaha Collection is an eclectic mix of files relating to the city of Omaha, Nebraska, and to areas of research pursued by faculty members of the Municipal University of Omaha, notably Ralph M. Wardle, professor of English, and Wilfred Payne, professor of Philosophy. The miscellaneous portions of the collection include material unrelated to Omaha. The collection includes information on Boys Town; the City of Omaha Financial Bulletin (1929); a Douglas County Election Announcement (1854); a letter from O.K. Oleson to Jim (last name unknown) concerning expansionism (1899); "The Lost Province of Quivira" (theorized to be Nebraska) reprint by Michael A. Shine (1916); Omaha annexation ordinances (1959-1966); Omaha city charter revisions (1954-1957); Omaha street car and bus routes (1929); a Journal of Genealogy issue devoted to research in Nebraska (1979); information on Omaha's World War II Memorial Park (1943-1945); letters to Ralph Wardle from prominent authors in response to invitations to speak in Omaha, including letters from writers Conrad Aiken, W.H. Auden, John Barth, Vera Yevseyevna Slonim (wife, editor, and translator of Vladimir Nabokov), Susan Sontag, and John Updike (a preprinted postcard signed by Updike declining the invitation) (all 1967); a letter from William Kloefkorn to Mel Bohn (1980); a circular letter from Carrie Chapman Catt opposing anti-Semitism in Germany (1933); brochures about U.S. savings bonds (1939-1949); and two folders of newspaper clippings and one folder of photographs and negatives depicting Omaha locations and people. The reasons these materials are housed together, despite apparently different origins, are unclear.