Saving Nebraska Treasures

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02/08/2019 Added

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Nebraska history comes to life in the basement of Love Library on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. Documents, photos, books and artifacts are preserved and protected by the staff at the Archives and Special Collections. In this episode, university archivist Mary Ellen Ducey takes us on a tour of this hidden treasure. Learn more about Archives and Special Collections ›› https://libraries.unl.edu/archives-special-collections

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[00:00:00.312](train engine chugging)
[00:00:03.210]A train carries fans across the country
[00:00:06.090]to see the Cornhuskers play Stanford
[00:00:08.560]in the 1941 Rose Bowl.
[00:00:10.381](audience applauding)
[00:00:12.470](typing on typewriter)
[00:00:14.130]Nebraska Journalist Beverly Deepe Keever
[00:00:16.690]types up news reports from the Vietnam War.
[00:00:19.635]Here's another one of my favorite items in the collection.
[00:00:22.370]A book wrapped in tattered gold paper
[00:00:24.871]is a gift from Willa Cather to her mother.
[00:00:28.011]And this is one edition of the book One Of Ours
[00:00:30.700]where she won the Pulitzer Prize.
[00:00:32.580]It's her 1922 novel.
[00:00:34.400]That's Mary Ellen Ducey
[00:00:35.900]holding the treasured Willa Cather novel.
[00:00:38.169]What's really significant is the inscription
[00:00:40.779]and it says to my darling mother,
[00:00:43.369]I send the book of my heart.
[00:00:45.804]Willa Cather, 1922.
[00:00:47.670]And I just think that's precious.
[00:00:49.430]Mary Ellen is an associate professor
[00:00:51.730]and university archivist.
[00:00:53.504]The archives and special collections
[00:00:55.920]houses important documents, books, photos,
[00:00:58.660]and the occasional artifact.
[00:01:01.130]This is from our polar ice core office.
[00:01:04.570]So this is core water in an algin cup
[00:01:10.730]and it's from Jay 29 Rice Ross Ice Shelf
[00:01:15.270]mited from ice chips taken at 70 meters depth
[00:01:18.391]from snow that fell approximately a thousand years ago.
[00:01:22.090]We have never opened it.
[00:01:23.349]Some of our colleagues make jokes
[00:01:24.780]about what kind of magic elixir is in this water
[00:01:27.230]but we've not tested it and we probably never will.
[00:01:29.530]It's the place where Nebraska stories come to life.
[00:01:33.250]I'm Mary Jane Bruce and this is Faculty 101.
[00:01:37.730]Okay, you should switch partners now.
[00:01:39.870]To be able to inspire young people.
[00:01:41.610](laughing)
[00:01:42.750]Today's your final.
[00:01:43.740]It's really rewarding.
[00:01:44.900]I love the students.
[00:01:46.509]Welcome to Faculty 101,
[00:01:48.769]life hacks and success stories from Nebraska faculty.
[00:01:54.720]And start our tour in the work room.
[00:01:57.160]In the archives and special collections work room,
[00:01:59.750]tables are covered with boxes,
[00:02:01.680]each with the potential for adding to Nebraska history.
[00:02:05.350]This is where all our magic happens.
[00:02:07.640]Mary Ellen Ducey embraces the disorder.
[00:02:10.580]I always like to tell people when they come in to visit
[00:02:12.580]and they come into this part of the tour,
[00:02:13.750]we're a working archive
[00:02:14.790]because a lot of times people
[00:02:16.240]expect everything to look beautiful
[00:02:17.590]and there's no chaos or no mess
[00:02:19.750]but we start with messes
[00:02:21.149]and we make things look beautiful
[00:02:22.580]so we're always in action here and doing stuff.
[00:02:24.540]A recent donation comes
[00:02:26.040]from the grand daughter of Frank Keim,
[00:02:28.080]the namesake of Keim Hall,
[00:02:29.890]home of the department of agronomy and horticulture.
[00:02:32.800]Doctor Keim, the long time head of the agronomy department,
[00:02:36.070]was known to be an outstanding teacher and advisor
[00:02:38.914]who influenced generations of students
[00:02:41.427]including Nobel Prize winning geneticist George Beadle.
[00:02:46.771]But this box tells a different story about Frank Keim.
[00:02:51.024]I think there's an account, account of the trip so.
[00:02:55.620]Assistant Archivist Peterson Brink unpacks the box
[00:02:58.930]that tells the story of Keim's high school trip
[00:03:01.980]to California for the Rose Bowl.
[00:03:03.938]Looks like the official Rose Bowl program,
[00:03:07.610]some newspaper articles.
[00:03:10.489]Even a dinner menu from the train dining car.
[00:03:13.715](train engine chugging)
[00:03:16.490]So they had a mock turtle soup,
[00:03:20.010]chilled pineapple juice or tomato juice.
[00:03:22.061]Donations like this one add richness to the archives.
[00:03:26.690]I'm a fan of Nebraska, the football team.
[00:03:30.279]And so getting to see that,
[00:03:32.180]you sort of feel like you're there.
[00:03:34.714](people cheering) (whimsical music)
[00:03:37.390]We talk in archives about artifactual value.
[00:03:39.910]Like the value of the words on the page
[00:03:41.960]but there's also that ooh, ahh, like you know,
[00:03:44.711]whoa, this was there.
[00:03:46.200]This person experienced this.
[00:03:47.490]So you can kind of maybe put yourself back
[00:03:49.530]in 1941 on the train.
[00:03:50.860](train engine chugging) (whimsical music)
[00:03:53.570]This was certainly kind of a special event, I'm sure.
[00:03:55.878](whimsical music)
[00:03:58.551]Another collection of material comes from the estate
[00:04:01.324]of Nebraska author Willa Cather's nephew Charles Cather.
[00:04:04.992]He donated his aunt's manuscripts, letters, medals,
[00:04:08.950]and inscribed first editions of her work
[00:04:11.244]along with a generous gift
[00:04:12.856]to support the university's Cather initiatives.
[00:04:15.639]The original part of the collection
[00:04:17.440]came about two years ago
[00:04:18.450]and this is the final residual stuff.
[00:04:20.370]So we've just gotten this in.
[00:04:22.000]We have an inventory of these boxes, what's in them.
[00:04:24.490]At another table in the work room,
[00:04:26.370]graduate student William Kelly
[00:04:28.050]sorts through papers donated by Vietnam War correspondent
[00:04:31.264]and Nebraska graduate Beverly Deepe Keever.
[00:04:34.360]She has everything from newspapers,
[00:04:36.787]you know, all different press releases we can see--
[00:04:39.907]She even donated the typewriter she hauled through Vietnam
[00:04:43.513]now safely cushioned in a box.
[00:04:46.067]We wrapped it up pretty good.
[00:04:49.156]William's job is to sort through the material
[00:04:51.836]and store it in a way that makes sense
[00:04:53.708]and is easily accessible.
[00:04:55.658]To have a collection as broad and as deep as this
[00:05:00.291]should be attractive to researchers
[00:05:02.002]really kind of across the country.
[00:05:04.342]And to have it in Nebraska is very cool,
[00:05:08.050]especially that she graduated
[00:05:09.360]from the University of Nebraska and is from Nebraska.
[00:05:12.050]In yet another area of the work room,
[00:05:14.030]photo and exhibit specialist Tracy Robinson
[00:05:16.720]digitizes glass lantern slides, an early 1900s technology.
[00:05:21.631]A lantern slide is what they would have used
[00:05:24.193]to do slideshows in the early days.
[00:05:27.196]They would have these.
[00:05:29.060]They're glass.
[00:05:29.893]And the image is in between two panes of glass.
[00:05:32.565]And then you'd have a light source behind it
[00:05:35.117]and it would project up on the wall.
[00:05:37.621]It's all part of the archivist's job,
[00:05:40.066]making sure those who use the collection
[00:05:43.060]find what they need.
[00:05:44.630]An archivist is part historian,
[00:05:46.528]part organizing expert, part detective.
[00:05:50.260]Archives Manager Josh Caster
[00:05:52.090]says connecting the dots is the challenge and the fun.
[00:05:56.100]We never know who's going to walk in the door
[00:05:57.660]and what they're looking for.
[00:05:58.610]So it's fun to connect people with what they want
[00:06:01.070]and watch them walk away happy.
[00:06:02.327]That's what I enjoy.
[00:06:03.960]Some of the collection is online
[00:06:05.670]such as digitized Cornhusker yearbooks
[00:06:08.210]and editions of the daily Nebraskan student newspaper.
[00:06:10.731]But a lot of material is stored on shelves
[00:06:13.459]in protective boxes.
[00:06:15.150]Light, temperature, and humidity are controlled
[00:06:18.360]to protect the collection of documents,
[00:06:20.420]rare books, and other items.
[00:06:22.078]Mary Ellen estimates the archives and special collections
[00:06:25.330]holds the equivalent of 54 football fields
[00:06:28.477]worth of material.
[00:06:30.140]Everything from oral histories
[00:06:31.940]in the Czech heritage collection
[00:06:33.540]to a handwritten copy
[00:06:34.704]of the official University of Nebraska Charter.
[00:06:37.680]So this will be the act
[00:06:39.050]to establish the University of Nebraska.
[00:06:40.813]And it says the object of such institution
[00:06:43.284]shall be to afford to the inhabitants of this state
[00:06:46.611]the means of inquiring a thorough knowledge
[00:06:49.640]of the various branches of literature,
[00:06:51.291]science, and the arts.
[00:06:53.191](orchestral music)
[00:06:56.120]And then there's the vault,
[00:06:57.960]a small, very cold room with extra protection against fire.
[00:07:02.497]We have a lot of cool stuff
[00:07:03.900]so it's hard to decide what is the coolest in the vault
[00:07:06.390]but one of the most unique--
[00:07:07.820]Inside are some of the collection's
[00:07:09.153]rarest books and treasures like the Lincoln ambrotype,
[00:07:12.546]a photo taken in 1858.
[00:07:15.099]A young Abe Lincoln looks out at the camera.
[00:07:17.915]The somber, Springfield lawyer
[00:07:20.450]who has yet to run for president.
[00:07:22.399]This would have been the actual plate
[00:07:24.080]that was used when Lincoln was sitting
[00:07:25.500]in the photography shop.
[00:07:26.964]It's in what they call a union case
[00:07:29.610]and it had some damage over time.
[00:07:31.473]And then he's wearing a white suit,
[00:07:33.701]which I guess he rarely did.
[00:07:35.170]And it's again, when he didn't have his beard.
[00:07:37.400]With help from the archive staff,
[00:07:39.270]researchers locate material from a variety of areas
[00:07:42.187]that help broaden understanding.
[00:07:44.343]For example, journals kept by Poet Laureate
[00:07:47.440]and Nebraskan Ted Kooser
[00:07:49.060]add dimension to a study of his work.
[00:07:51.389]You can start from maybe it's a letter or a journal.
[00:07:54.431]With Ted Kooser, it might be a journal.
[00:07:56.250]With Willa Cather, it might be a letter.
[00:07:57.681]With Mari Sandoz, it could be both.
[00:08:00.330]The idea for a novel, the idea for a story,
[00:08:02.868]then you see the story being written and the draft forms.
[00:08:05.650]And then you see it in its edits and typed edits.
[00:08:08.159]And then you see its galley proofs as a manuscript.
[00:08:11.180]And then you get the final work.
[00:08:12.860]And then you get reviews of the work.
[00:08:14.620]And then you get them just living their life
[00:08:16.470]during that whole process.
[00:08:17.701]So that's the joy of having the archive collection
[00:08:20.637]and the rare book collection together.
[00:08:22.056]Preserving history as an archivist
[00:08:24.176]stems from a love of learning, exploring, and saving.
[00:08:32.091]Mary Ellen traces her career back to her family home
[00:08:35.870]before she left to study
[00:08:37.130]at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:08:39.220]Her mother suggested
[00:08:40.410]she look through the boxes in the attic.
[00:08:44.816]And I had somehow managed to save
[00:08:47.250]every single paper I've ever had when I was a kid
[00:08:49.720]and there it was, you know,
[00:08:51.410]like every math lesson, everything,
[00:08:54.101]and it was like what was going on?
[00:08:55.885]I couldn't keep it all so I had to sort it out.
[00:08:57.898]What do I want to keep?
[00:08:59.050]What's most important?
[00:08:59.930]What's gonna tell the story?
[00:09:01.020]What do I love?
[00:09:02.040]So there I was, doing an archival job.
[00:09:03.747]She got a degree in library science
[00:09:05.801]and went on to graduate school in Indiana
[00:09:08.167]where she worked as a typist in the rare book library.
[00:09:12.210]You know, typing up information
[00:09:13.783]and index cards for letters
[00:09:15.934]written by Upton Beall Sinclair,
[00:09:17.748]or Virginia Woolf, and the Bloomsbury Group,
[00:09:20.270]and I'm like I am home.
[00:09:21.950]I'm in rare books.
[00:09:23.570]I'm looking at people's letters.
[00:09:25.170]I'm getting to organize stuff.
[00:09:27.390]I can find no other job that I would love as much as this.
[00:09:34.830]Her journey eventually brought her back to UNL.
[00:09:38.097]I'm so grateful that I got to come home to Nebraska
[00:09:40.073]and be here.
[00:09:41.531]It's significant to me that I can be a Nebraskan
[00:09:44.744]and tell a Nebraskan story.
[00:09:46.640]Mary Ellen and her staff preserve and protect stories
[00:09:49.552]that would otherwise be lost.
[00:09:51.891]For example, when Mary Jones, the first librarian on campus
[00:09:55.819]discovered a painting on the edges of a book.
[00:09:59.274]Somehow she discovered that
[00:10:01.040]or turned the book the right way
[00:10:02.320]to discover that there was a forage painting.
[00:10:04.330]And she's like okay, this is unique.
[00:10:05.500]I'm gonna set it aside.
[00:10:06.460]And this was our first rare book.
[00:10:07.960]Or the way Mari Sandoz reveals her personality
[00:10:10.896]in a review she scribbled on the inside of a book
[00:10:13.840]from her personal library.
[00:10:15.700]She wrote a very bad book.
[00:10:17.262]Better read Hyde's Red Cloud's Folk,
[00:10:20.010]Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks,
[00:10:21.450]or my Crazy Horse and These Were the Sioux.
[00:10:25.150]And she was opinionated in everything she wrote
[00:10:28.240]and everything she did
[00:10:29.073]and this is just one small example of it
[00:10:31.100]but I really like that about her.
[00:10:32.871](orchestral music)
[00:10:35.809]It's not always easy to tell what is treasure
[00:10:38.916]and what is destined for the trash,
[00:10:41.074]but Mary Ellen has advice for amateur archivists.
[00:10:44.674]Control as best you can
[00:10:46.850]for light, temperature, and humidity,
[00:10:48.970]which means don't store anything
[00:10:50.667]in the attic or the basement.
[00:10:52.357]Don't use plastic bins for storage and provide information.
[00:10:57.076]For photographs, if you can just identify them by year,
[00:11:00.470]that's good.
[00:11:01.353]If you can identify the people.
[00:11:02.848]There are some pencils that you can get
[00:11:05.050]to write on the back
[00:11:05.883]and I would recommend a specific photo pencil.
[00:11:08.590]So telling the stories, getting the items identified,
[00:11:10.623]getting them into nice boxes,
[00:11:12.520]keeping them in good temperature and humidity.
[00:11:14.170]Those are like the basics.
[00:11:16.108](orchestral music)
[00:11:19.390]And don't forget the archives at special collections
[00:11:22.479]belongs to all of us.
[00:11:24.272]We're a team here.
[00:11:25.703]We're the stewards for a few years
[00:11:27.880]but it's gonna live long beyond us.
[00:11:29.970]It's your stuff
[00:11:30.981]and it's gonna be here for a long time
[00:11:33.020]so who knows what kind of discoveries are gonna be made
[00:11:35.280]or those other serendipitous moments
[00:11:37.040]will come from the future?
[00:11:38.250]And that also gives me chills 'cause it's very exciting.
[00:11:43.790]That's it for this edition of Faculty 101.
[00:11:46.389]In the show notes, you'll find a link
[00:11:48.240]to the archives and special collections.
[00:11:50.560]Next time on the podcast.
[00:11:52.330]I live it, breathe it, think it.
[00:11:54.355]A university professor whose career is his passion.
[00:12:00.775]Faculty 101 is produced
[00:12:02.416]by the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:12:05.996]From what we understand, they chartered a train
[00:12:08.125]to take husker fans down to the Rose Bowl.
[00:12:10.944]That's right.
[00:12:12.020]They did not win the game but in 1941,
[00:12:15.553]that was the big success to go to the Rose Bowl.

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Saving Nebraska Treasures

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