The library was officially represented by the librarian, Mrs. Minnie P. Knotts, at the American Library Association meeting held at Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, June 22-27, and at the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Library Association held at Hastings, Nebraska, October 20-21. The thanks of the Society are due to Miss Charlotte Templeton for valuable and timely assistance given to the librarian in the work of cataloguing. The museum of the Society is growing,
not only in size, but in the importance of its work. Mr.
Blackman has carried forward the field work with energy and
zeal during the past year, and his explorations of Indian
village sites have added materially to the definite
information we already have of the character and habits of
the occupants of this plains region before the advent of the
white man. There is only a part of the year that field work
can profitably be done. The remaining time is put in by the
archaeologist in arranging and labeling specimens in the
museum and in lecture work. During the month of May Mr.
Blackman attended the meeting of the American Museum
Association held in Chicago, and upon his return trip, at
the request of Mr. Edgar R. Harlan, explored and reported
upon the mound which had been excavated near Boone, Iowa, by
the Historical Department of Iowa. During the month of June
he conducted some investigations in the vicinity of Blair,
Nebraska, and discovered another Indian village site. During
the same month he spent some time in the vicinity of
Tekamah, where he opened a mound and unearthed five
skeletons, and found some Indian relics. In September he
continued explorations with Mr. Robert Gilder south of South
Omaha, and with Alvin and Elmer McReynolds at Nehawka, where
he |
found a new flint quarry. Later in the same month he made a trip to Blue Springs, and, assisted by Walter Rice, he explored a newly found village site; going from there to Nelson, thence to Red Cloud and to Bloomington. At the latter place he made an important find of stratified flints on the hills south of town. From Bloomington he went to Guide Rock, where he obtained the files of the Guide Rock Beacon, completing his trip at Fairbury, Jefferson county, the third of October. From October 13 to 15 he was engaged in explorations at Battle Creek, O'Neill, Clearwater, and Oakdale. Mr. Blackman has delivered many lectures during the year and has planned for some more in the near future. Among the places where he has spoken before teachers' institutes and other bodies are Lincoln (Longfellow school), Fairbury and Geneva. Among the most notable collections of archeological and Indian material received during the year is that presented by Charles H. Morrill of Lincoln. This collection includes over 10,000 chipped flints, stone implements, beaded work and a rare and unique colored portrait of Buffalo Bill. Among other contributions received, and worthy of mention, are the following: William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), mounted buffalo; Alvin and Elmer McReynolds, Nehawka, flints from the Nehawka mines; A. L. Hopkins, Oakdale, a gift of 2,000 chipped flints; Walter Rice, Blue Springs, a large collection of flints; L. B. Miller, Bloomington, a fine collection of flints from the Republican Valley; Daniel B. Cropsey, Fairbury, a sectional map of Jefferson county; J. A. Henderson, Clearwater, geological specimens, and Indian relies; S. C. Coombs, Winnebago, Indian relies and beaded case, secured by A. E. Sheldon; Grand Army of the republic, Minden, stump of the first flag pole erected on the parade |
ground at Fort Kearny; T. A. Stratton, Lincoln, miscellaneous collection; Frank M. Tyrrell, specimens of the work of beavers from the Niobrara river in Cherry county; Charles White, Phillips, a large collection of guns and beaded work. Mr. White, who is known as "Buckskin Charley" was a government scout on the frontier in the early days. The director of field work, Mr. A. E.
Sheldon, was out of the state the first five months of the
year, on leave of absence. Returning on June 1, he resumed
his duties with the Society and has since been actively
engaged in his particular lines of work. Among the important
things accomplished by Mr. Sheldon during the past few
months has been the temporary rescue from destruction of the
Presbyterian Mission building on the Omaha reservation. The
title to this building is in Noah La Flesche, and the title
to the land is in the Omaha tribe. Mr. Sheldon is now
working upon a plan to provide for the purchase of this
building from La Flesche, and to secure from the council of
the Omaha tribe the conveyance of a small tract of land
surrounding it. Upon a field trip the latter part of August
he visited the old settlers reunion of Sarpy and Dakota
counties and secured much historical data and several Indian
relies. He also was fortunate in obtaining the early records
of the Dakota County Old Settlers Association, which have
been copied. Mr. Sheldon has also made a transcript, in
duplicate, of the journal of the constitutional convention
of 1875, from the originals in the office of the secretary
of state. This is to form a part of the last two volumes of
the Nebraska Constitutional Conventions series, now
in course of preparation. He is also engaged upon a plan to
encourage the writing |
of true stories of Nebraska history by the school children of the state. This plan, which is in the nature of a contest, will tend to interest the school children in Nebraska history, and to establish a closer relationship between both pupils and teachers and the State Historical Society. The work of this department is not
strictly in line with the objects of the State Historical
Society, but has been undertaken because of its seeming
usefulness to the public, and because no other provision had
been made for this particular service. The time will
doubtless come when some permanent arrangement will be made
by the legislature for the maintenance of this important
work, upon an independent basis. Until such time it should
probably be continued as a part of the work of this Society.
Much new material has been assembled in this department, and
all has been carefully rearranged and minutely classified.
Mr. Sheldon continues as head of this department, assisted
by Mr. William E. Hannan, and by Miss Julia Constancer as
stenographer. At the present time the work is being
conducted in an able and aggressive manner, and without
prejudice or partisan bias. The members of the present
legislature will doubtless find, as did the members of the
last session, that this department is of great assistance to
them in the performance of their public duties. The newspaper work in this department
is under the immediate charge of William E. Hannan, who has
organized the collection in a manner calculated to make it
of the greatest use to the public. Mr. Hannan represented
the Society in an address before the annual meeting of
the |
Nebraska State Press Association, where he secured the adoption of a resolution by that body which has resulted in enlisting the sympathy and support of many of the editors of the state who had heretofore manifested but little interest in the Society. Since the first of January, 1908, 173 Nebraska newspapers have been added to those regularly received by the Society, making a total of 484 Nebraska papers, and 36 foreign papers now being received. During the year there have been bound 16 volumes of dailies and 1,312 volumes of weeklies. These have all been sorted, listed, labeled and placed upon the shelves. A large collection of newspapers were received during the year from the estate of the late William B. Lambert, of Neligh. This collection amounted to 6,000 pounds in weight, and upon its receipt was placed in storage in the basement vaults of the capitol until such a time as we should have room in a building of our own. Among the notable additions of rare newspapers during the year are four bound volumes of the New York Tribune covering the period from January 2, 1858, to December 18, 1867. There remains the important work of cataloguing the files of Nebraska newspapers, upon which a start has been made. For several years the expenses of this
organization have been paid out of the funds of the State
Historical Society. During the past two years your
secretary, as secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska
Territorial Pioneers Association, has been able to defray
nearly all the expenses of the association from its own
treasury, and for the past year the organization has been
wholly self-supporting. The meeting last January was
remarkably well attended and a lively interest shown. The
summer meet |
ing of the association, held July 10-11 at Lincoln and Milford, was not largely attended owing to the fact that the date of the meeting followed so closely after the serious flood that railway communication had not been reëstablished. During the year 86 new names have been added to the membership roll of the Nebraska Territorial Pioneers Association, making a total of 304 members enrolled, of whom 35 are deceased. A certificate of membership has been issued to all members, and a permanent membership register has been prepared. This record shows the name, address, date of election, date of payment of fee, date and place of settlement in Nebraska, and date and place of birth. This enrollment of itself ought to be of great value in the years to come. The benefits derived from this association are not limited to the members, for it is one of the live agencies of the Historical Society in accumulating historical and biographical data and relics; and best of all it inspires in the minds and hearts of younger Nebraskans a pride in their state and its institutions and a wholesome respect for the founders and builders of the commonwealth. In my report of last year I had the
honor to recommend that everything possible be done to
encourage local historical societies and old settlers
associations, and that plans be made for some form of
permanent affiliation between these organizations and this
Society. In accordance with this recommendation an amendment
to the constitution was proposed at the last annual meeting,
providing that any such local organization might become an
affiliated member of this Society. This amendment had the
endorsement of the board of directors and this Society. It
will be your privilege to adopt it at this ses- |
sion. Looking forward to such affiliation it has been the policy of your secretary during the past year to keep in close communication with these local organizations, to have some member of the office staff present at their meetings, to encourage them to report their proceedings to this Society, and to place in our collection important papers that should be preserved. At the annual meetings of several of these organizations this Society was represented by Mr. Sheldon, and at the Home Coming Day celebration, held in Brownville, August 28, the Society was represented by the librarian, Mrs. Minnie P. Knotts, and by Mr. Albert Watkins, both of whom had a place upon the program. A few weeks later the Nemaha County Historical Society voted unanimously to become an affiliated member of the state society, and reported the proceedings of its meeting, with a history of the organization and a copy of the papers presented. Similar reports have been received from the Sarpy County Old Setlers (sic) Association, the South Omaha Historical Society, and the Dakota County Old Settlers Association, and others will take action on the proposition at an early date. This plan is going to bring us into closer association with those who are interested in this line of work in every county and will aid materially in the collection of local historical data. The most important work in this
connection during the year was done by our vice president,
Mr. Robert Harvey, who has located the site of the famous
battle near Ash Hollow, between the United States troops
under General Harney and the Sioux Indians, in 1855. After
an interview with General Richard C. Drum, who participated
in this engagement, and a personal visit to the site, |
Mr. Harvey feels that he has accurately determined the location of this historic battle field, and steps ought to be taken at once to erect thereon a permanent monument. The secretary has had during the year several conferences with the representatives of the Daughters of the American Revolution, with reference to the marking of the overland trails of Nebraska. The Daughters have finally agreed to take the initiative and ask the coöperation of this Society. We have also kept in close touch with Mr. Ezra Meeker, who has had introduced in Congress a bill known as H. R. 11,722, "authorizing the president to appoint a commissioner to supervise the erection of monuments and markers, and locate the general route of the Oregon trail." This bill provides for an appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose of marking this trail from the Missouri river to Puget Sound. Mr. Meeker requests our coöperation in securing the passage of this bill. If the bill becomes a law, it will only be necessary for us to mark the minor trails converging into the general trail crossing the state.1 A copy of the resolution adopted at the last annual meeting, commending the effort to establish a national reserve, embracing the site of Fort Kearny, was forwarded to each member of our delegation in Congress, practically all of whom have pledged their hearty coöperation. It is recommended that immediate steps be taken to 1 The bill was introduced by Representative Humphrey, of Washington, at the first session of the sixtieth Congress, January 6, 1908, and again introduced as H. R. 20477 on April 8. This bill was referred to the committee on the library and on May 19 was reported back by its chairman, Samuel W. McCall, now (1916) governor of Massachusetts. The report recommended the passage of the bill, and it was referred to the committee of the whole, but no further action upon it was taken. (Congressional Record, first session sixtieth Congress, page 479; ibid., 6564; House Reports, first session sixtieth Congress, volume II, document 1701, serial number, 5226.)--ED. |
place a bronze tablet on the M. E. Smith & Co. building at Omaha, which occupies the site of the building temporarily occupied as a territorial capitol. A similar tablet should be placed on the high school building at Omaha, designating that it occupies the site of the permanent territorial capitol. Under the present law the State
Historical Society is made the custodian of the public
archives of the state, provided that such archives are more
than twenty years old, and that the officer in whose charge
they may be found is willing to give them up; and provided,
further, that the Historical Society can find the means of
taking care of them. This law is greatly in need of
amendment, if the public records of this state are to be
preserved. A great quantity of public archives of
inestimable value is now decaying in the basement of the
capitol. Tons of these papers, some of them dating back to
territorial days and of priceless value, have been burned by
janitors in the past, and every year witnesses their further
destruction. Many of these have been water-soaked by leaking
steam pipes, and the odor arising from their decaying
condition is at times unbearable in the basement vaults,
where they are found. The condition prevailing in our state
capitol is, on a minor scale, duplicated in many of the
county courthouses of the state. There are two things that
ought to be done at once: first, amend the law so as to make
it mandatory upon the officer in charge to turn over records
of his office that are twenty years old, and leaving it
optional with him as to whether he will transfer to the
Historical Society records of a later date that are no
longer useful in his office; and, second, the Historical
Society should be provided with means to em- |
ploy the help necessary to care for these records. In this matter of the preservation of public archives the state of Nebraska is far behind other western states, not to mention the older commonwealths of the East. Another subject to which we are giving
our attention is the matter of assembling a number of
traveling libraries of Nebraska history. Frequent requests
are received from local and school libraries, clubs and
individuals for material bearing upon Nebraska's history.
Our plan is to have several collections of books and
pamphlets on Nebraska history in boxes convenient for
shipment to be sent out under proper conditions in response
to these demands. Your secretary believes that this
proposition carefully worked out will be one of the most
valuable and popular features of our work. There have been issued from the press
during the year two volumes of publications, volume XII,
which is the second volume of the Nebraska Constitutional
Conventions series, and volume XV, which is composed of
proceedings and collections. Out of the special
appropriation for printing the Nebraska Constitutional
Conventions series, 144 pages of the third volume of
this series have also been printed. This exhausted the
special appropriation for this purpose, and the work cannot
be continued until additional funds are obtained. It is
believed that the remaining two volumes of this series can
be completed during the coming year, and it will also be
necessary to publish one volume of the proceedings and
collections, of which the present report will constitute a
part. |
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