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Lincoln, Nebraska: Home on the Prairie | People & Places | Smithsonian Magazine

The thing you have to understand about Lincoln is that it falls under the radar. Unless you’re from Nebraska—or possibly South Dakota or Iowa—it’s probably not a place you’d think of visiting, much less moving to. No matter how unaffordable life becomes in Brooklyn or Portland or Austin, Lincoln is unlikely to turn up on a list of “unexpected hipster destinations.” But, being extremely unhip, I moved there anyway. In 1999, when I was 29, I traded New York City for it and stayed nearly four years. This was a strange thing to do, and it perplexed a lot of people, particularly because I did not, contrary to some assumptions, go there for school or a guy or because I was in the witness protection program. As a result, there’s a part of me that feels like an impostor whenever I write or even talk about Lincoln. I’m not from there, I don’t live there now, and when I did live there, I occupied an often awkward middle ground between guest and resident. By this I mean that even though I lived in a house and had friends and a relationship and a book club and a dog, I was always regarded as “the person who moved here from New York for no particular reason.” In Nebraska that translates loosely into “deeply weird person.”

via www.smithsonianmag.com

Excellent article that, to some degree, speaks to my own Lincoln experience (sans farm animals). I'm not “the person who moved here from New [Jersey] for no particular reason.”  (I came to unite my family with my brother's, and to start a new adventure.) Still, there's much I can identify with in Meghan Daum's article about her relationship with this unique place. Enjoy.

OVERLOOKED LINCOLN: Museum Boasts Nebraska's Smallest Railroad

Editor's note: "Overlooked Lincoln" is a series profiling unique and under-the-radar museums and personal collections in the Lincoln area. If you have a suggestion, send an email to editor@starcityblog.com.

By Marcia Claesson

Just a half an hour west of Lincoln, you’ll find a place where you can ride on a real steam engine. It’s one-twelfth the size of a regular railroad.

The Chippewa Northwestern Railway  in Goehner, Neb. was constructed by Jim Culver and Joel Harper, model railroad enthusiasts who wanted to share their hobby with others.  Ten volunteers operate one-inch live steam trains on 1,900 feet of track. It’s the experience of running a real steam engine, as well as riding on the train, that makes live steam different from other kinds of model railroading, Culver said.

“You have to work to make it work,” he said. “You’ve got to maintain the fire, maintain the water. It’s a real railroad. You have all the same problems you would with a full-size version, just in miniature.”

OVERLOOKED LINCOLN: William Jennings Bryan Home Offers Insight into Famous Nebraskan

By Marcia Claesson

On the campus of Bryan-LGH Medical Center-East, you’ll find a home that was once called the “Monticello of the Midwest.”

 William Jennings Bryan, famed Nebraska politician, speaker and writer, lived in three different Lincoln homes. Fairview was constructed in 1902 and 1903 and was the grandest.

Ellen Beans, director of volunteer services at Bryan-LGH, said Bryan chose the location for a couple of reasons.

“They chose this land because it was totally empty," she said, and "because it had a fair view of all the land surrounding the house. So that’s how it got its name."

Fairview was considered a premiere home at the time, with both gas and electric lighting, high-end furnishings from Miller & Paine and a unique layout built for entertaining. The Bryans hosted many social gatherings in the elegant home, which they lived in from 1902 to 1914.

OVERLOOKED LINCOLN: The International Quilt Study Center and Museum

By Marcia Claesson

An impressive building on the corner of 33rd and Holdrege streets houses the largest publicly held collection of quilts in the world.

But don’t expect to see them all at once. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln International Quilt Study Center & Museum has a different focus, said Maureen Ose, communications coordinator.

About a hundred or so quilts are displayed at any one time in the museum.  The main exhibitions are changed several times a year, and each focuses on a specific theme. The main galleries on the second floor currently feature two exhibitions: Marseille: White Corded Quilting, devoted to French needlework tradition from the early eighteenth century to the beginning of World War II; and Revisiting the “Art Quilt,” focusing on quilts as art and featuring contemporary quilts. 

“All of our exhibitions have not just the quilts in them, but also historical and cultural info intertwined into it that really makes it into a rich experience for people,” Ose said.

Overlooked Lincoln: The Frank H. Woods Telephone Pioneer Museum

Editor's note: "Overlooked Lincoln" is a series profiling unique and under-the-radar museums and personal collections in the Lincoln area. If you have a suggestion, send an email to editor@starcityblog.com.

By Marcia Claesson

“What does someone do in Lincoln, Nebraska?”

That’s the question Allison (played by Zooey Deschanel) asks in the movie Yes Man, as she and Carl arrive at the Lincoln airport.

“Well, clearly, we should go there,” responds Carl, played by Jim Carrey, pointing to a sign that reads, “Come to the Frank H.  Woods Telephone Pioneer Museum Today!”

The short clip that follows has brought unexpected publicity to the tiny museum, which Wally Tubbs, one of the founders, calls “the best kept secret in Nebraska.”

Overlooked Lincoln: Germans from Russia Museum Chronicles Heritage and Culture While Forging Connections

By Hanna Day-Woodruff

Tucked into the heart of Lincoln’s South Bottoms neighborhood is the Germans from Russia Museum, headquarters of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.  Located across from Cooper Park, it would blend into the neighborhood except for the prominent limestone Peter Felten statue of a 19th-century German Russian immigrant family. 

This iconic image - a man and a woman, arms protectively around the shoulders of their young children, facing each and an uncertain future, with a large cross between them -  represents the tens of thousands of ethnic Germans from Russia who immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s. 

Overlooked Lincoln: The Lester F. Larsen Tractor Museum

Editor's note: "Overlooked Lincoln" is a new series profiling unique and under-the-radar museums and personal collections in the Lincoln area. If you have a suggestion, send an email to editor@starcityblog.com.

*Edited Thursday, Oct. 7 to correct year of oldest tractors and year the museum opened to the public.

By Hanna Day-Woodruff

Even for those not well-versed in agricultural history, or without personal experience of tractors, it's worthwhile to visit the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Museum.

Located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's East Campus, the museum's primary collection is a series of tractors that date back to 1909, as well as farm tools that date from even earlier.  But there are stories in these walls – each tractor, barbed wire or oxen yoke holds a tale of ingenuity in the face of hardship, and the building itself, a large brick warehouse, housed the first Nebraska Tractor Test Lab.

Established in 1920 and still in operation nearby, the test facility was the first of its kind. Spearheaded by the outrage of farmer-legislator Wilmot “Flint” Crozier of Osceola, the test facility eventually became crucial to the evolution of tractor design and manufacturing worldwide, spurring the industry towards more traction power, better safety, universal hitches and auxiliary power.

After several negative experiences with "excuses for tractors," Crozier had come to realize that a lack of oversight and standards was leading to wildly exaggerated advertising claims by tractor manufacturers. He helped change state law to create the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab, where all tractors sold in the state were required to undergo tests. The tests measured traction force, roll-over tendency, loudness and a host of other features that have changed as tractors have grown more powerful and complex. 

Overlooked Lincoln: The National Museum of Roller Skating

Editor's note: "Overlooked Lincoln" is a new series profiling unique and under-the-radar museums and personal collections in the Lincoln area. It will run the second Thursday of every month. If you have a suggestion, send an email to editor@starcityblog.com.

By Ladd Wendelin

If humans were intended to walk, roller skates wouldn't have been invented.

This much is clear when visitors step through the doors of the National Museum of Roller Skating, which sits inconspicuously at the corner of 48th and South streets. Through the offices of USA Roller Sports, past the dozens of shiny plaques honoring famed athletes, coaches and roller skating elite, lies the hallowed sanctum itself, commemorating roller skating past and present in an effort to educate and inspire future skaters.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year under the direction of curator James Vannurden, the National Museum of Roller Skating hosts a surprising and exhaustingly thorough collection of historical artifacts, photos and memorabilia detailing the evolution of roller skating as a sport and national past-time. It also includes long-forgotten niches of roller skating culture that often escaped the public’s eye.

“When I go to museum conferences, I’m the one people want to talk to,” Vannurden said, referring to the novelty of a museum devoted entirely to roller skating.