July 16 University of Nebraska

Hello Everyone,

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln was established in 1869 as a land-grant college under the Morrill Act. It’s the state’s oldest and largest university with an enrollment of over 53,000 students. It was also the first school west of the Mississippi to establish a graduate program.

While it is known for its strong football program and its alliance with the Big Ten Conference, many visitors are unaware that its campuses house several outstanding museums. We visited three of them - the Nebraska State Museum dedicated to natural history, the International Quilt Museum, and The Center for Great Plains Studies.

NEBRASKA STATE MUSEUM

Covering four floors, the Nebraska State Museum at Morrill Hall on campus is Nebraska’s largest natural history museum and has achieved considerable fame. It’s ranked in the top ten among United States universities. In addition, it and New York City’s American Museum of Natural History are rated in the top two collections in the country for mammoth fossils. Nebraska State Museum has 1.3 million artifacts and specimens including a premier collection tracing the evolution of elephants.

Other exhibits include a dinosaur gallery, display on evolution, Native American artifacts, extensive wildlife dioramas, weapons, and gems and minerals. A hands-on discovery room and a planetarium also draw attention. Because it is so extensive, visitors should plan on a minimum of three to four hours to tour this facility.

To learn its history, head to the third floor’s Cooper Gallery for a temporary exhibit, The Museum Builders. It’s the story of how Charles H. Morrill and Erwin Hinckley Barbour formed a partnership to preserve Nebraska’s fossils by creating a “Grand Museum.”

In 1871, one of the college’s first accomplishments was to establish one-time funding for a small collection of Nebraska’s plants, animals and minerals. The first artifacts were skeletons of a horse and a cow. They were housed in corridors and science classrooms at University Hall. This was the start of the Nebraska State Museum.

In 1875, Morrill, a farmer and merchant, visited Yale’s Hot Creek Fossil Site in Nebraska where he noticed fossils of three-toed horses, a rhino, and a Titanothere. He felt these should be preserved for Nebraskans. Barbour came to the University of Nebraska to lead the Geology Department, direct Nebraska’s State Museum, and serve as Nebraska State Geologist.

In 1891, Morrill and Barbour formed a partnership. From 1892-1928, Morrill funded more than 50 of Barbour’s fossil collecting expeditions. This resulted in the growth of thousands of specimens requiring much more space in which to house them. Barbour then fostered the construction of Morrill Hall featuring his true passion - the fossils of Nebraska elephants.

On May 28, 1927, Morrill Hall was dedicated. After Morrill died in 1928, Barbour continued with the aid of his preparator Henry Reider to build Elephant Hall. They envisioned a parade of mounted fossil elephants in chronological order from mammoths to modern elephants. Today Elephant Hall is seen on the main floor.

Barbour’s sister, Carrie, who was brought to the university to teach art, was instrumental in helping her brother establish the museum. She was the first female paleontologist. She worked on field crews in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska and taught paleontology for 25 years.

Erwin Barbour retired in 1941 after 50 years of serving as museum director. He discovered at least 15 species of prehistoric elephants from Nebraska and achieved his goal - tracing the elephant’s evolution on the Great Plains.

SECOND (MAIN) FLOOR

Tour Elephant Hall and you’ll discover Archie, an Imperial Mammoth, towering 14 feet. It’s the world’s largest mounted mammoth in any American museum. Mammoths, Nebraska’s state fossils, were the largest mammals known to have walked the Great Plains. Archie was found on a farm in Lincoln County in 1922. Chickens were seen pecking at it and had eaten some of the bones before anyone realized what it was.

You’ll learn about evolution by viewing actual skeletons and teeth of elephants of various eras including an elephant with flattened tusks for scooping and a dwarf elephant. One display relates the differences between the modern Asian and African elephants.

Nebraska State Museum has more than 14,000 mammal specimens, many of which are from Nebraska. In Fossil Rhinos & Horses, see a short-legged rhinoceros. It was similar in shape to a modern hippopotamus and quite common in North America. In either that gallery or Highway Paleontology, you’ll also view ancient horses, cats, even a giant camel called Gigantocamelus. The Mesozoic Gallery features Nebraska’s fossils from the “Age of Dinosaurs” while Toren Gallery of Ancient Life includes scenes and specimens from the Paleozoic era.

Bizarre Beasts takes visitors on a journey of Earth’s strangest creatures that ultimately became extinct. Visitors see cast models and lifelike models of such oddities as a pterosaur, a giant reptile with a 15-foot wingspan; Diatryma, a 6-foot tall flightless bird; a Helicoprion, a 13-foot shark with a row of teeth that resembles a buzz saw; and more.

THIRD FLOOR’s OTHER EXHIBITS

The Explore Evolution Gallery investigates evolutionary principles ranging from the smallest to the largest organisms. It focuses on seven research projects that have made major contributions to our understanding of evolution via videos, models, and interactive components. One fascinating display is on the discoveries of walking whales on land while another relates genetic ties between human and chimps.

At the Tree of Life exhibit, you’ll discover such interesting facts as how humans are related to other forms of life and, how bald eagles are related to giraffes. This interactive display covers the evolutionary relationships of more than 70,000 different species over 3.5 billion years. It’s the newest display in the museum’s Explore Evolution gallery.

First Peoples of the Plains is a comprehensive look at those who inhabited and moved across the Great Plains area. Learn about how they transformed the natural resources such as the buffalo for their food, transportation, tools, clothing, and shelter. Read how youngsters learned how to become adults by using their toys. Discover how the challenges they faced turned into cultural traditions that affected the importance of children, language, religion, and art.

Jurassic Dinosaurs includes a life-sized Allosaurus, one of North America’s largest carnivorous dinosaurs. You’ll also see a Stegosaurus.

Rocks and Minerals contains a fluorescent room and a wide variety of rocks and minerals. You’ll see Nebraska’s state rock the Prairie Agate and its state gemstone the Blue Agate.

Weapons Throughout Time contains those used for hunting, fishing, sports, fighting, and ceremonies. They span a time period of 9,000 years ranging from prehistoric stone arrow points used in the Great Plains to Samurai swords to World War I automatic weapons. It explains how diverse cultures respond to a common need, in this case defense, and make it distinct to themselves.

FOURTH FLOOR

Cherish Nebraska, consisting of seven galleries, opened in February. It celebrates Nebraska’s natural heritage by telling how birds, plants, and animals have been shaped by human impact and geological changes over thousands of years. Visitors can talk to scientists in the Visible Lab, do their own research using microscopes, and open and close with a hand crank the jaw of a sabertooth tiger. Exhibits are world class.

FIRST FLOOR (basement)

The first floor is dedicated to biodiversity. In the Hall of Nebraska Wildlife, the state’s plants and animals are displayed in many outstanding dioramas. Learn facts about wildlife as you view the many taxidermy exhibits.

Darwin: A Life of Discovery focuses on his contributions to the natural sciences including his theory of evolution. Dr. Paul and Betty Marx Science Discovery Center is a hands-on natural science discovery room for all ages. Children can touch a buffalo rope, see a beaver dam, and experience a fossil dig site.

DETAILS

The Nebraska State Museum is located at Morrill Hall, 645 N 14th Street in Lincoln. The telephone number is (402) 472-2642. Hours are Monday-Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursdays 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Sundays from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Admissions are adults (19 and over) $8; children ages 5-18 $4; ages 4 and under free. Seniors (65 and over) $7. Planetarium admission is $5 more for adults and $4 more for children. It has a limited schedule. For information on the Planetarium such as show descriptions and times, go to the Planetarium page. The museum also holds many special events. You can see a list of these by visiting the Events Link.

INTERNATIONAL QUILT MUSEUM

For those who enjoy quilts and quilt making, the International Quilt Museum (IQM) is a must see. It’s part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Its mission is to build a global collection and audience that celebrate the cultural and artistic significance of quilts.

It was founded by native Nebraskans Ardis and Robert James in 1997. They donated nearly 1,000 quilts, worth nearly six million dollars, and gave an additional $1 million gift toward the $3 million endowment fund to establish the Center. Their collection dates from the late 1700s to today and is particularly strong in Amish and Mennonite quilts from the late 19th century. Ardis was an active quilter herself.

The museum’s collection has now grown to more than 6,000 quilts and quilt-related objects and is the world’s largest publicly owned collection. Most are made of cotton, silk, and wool.

The 37,000 square foot glass and brick “green” building, where these quilts are housed since 2008, is also special. Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture of Omaha designed the building. They were selected out of more than 120 firms. The design is a metaphor for a quilt. The glass windows in the front of the structure represent the front of a quilt while the galleries are the batting and the offices make up the quilt’s back. The Reception Hall is shaped like the eye of a needle.

More than 130 quilt guilds and quilt organizations provided gifts for the building’s construction. In June 2015, thanks to a gift from the Robert and Ardis James Foundation, the IQM opened a 13,000-square foot expansion.

The collection consists of quilts and patchwork from more than 50 countries including India and those in Africa. They cover the time period from the 1600s to the present. Ongoing acquisitions are meant to cover a thorough representation of quilts worldwide.

The building contains a state-of-the-art research and storage space, educational displays, and seven galleries where selections from the collection and temporary exhibitions are shown on a rotating basis. It holds 12 to 15 exhibits annually where 100 to 140 quilts are on view at one time for four to six months. Most are from the permanent collection.

Faculty, visiting scholars, and graduate students study all aspects of quilt making and its traditions including their conservation at the center. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is the only university in the world offering a master’s degree in Textile History with a quilt studies emphasis.

IQM also has online exhibits of modern and vintage quilts. Sections include Amish, African, Asian, and American.

The museum received accreditation in 2013 from the American Alliance of Museums. That is the highest national recognition a museum can achieve.

PUBLIC EVENTS

Several programs are open to the general public. This includes symposiums, workshops, special programs for children, and fellowships for textile artists. You can check out these special events on their site at Plan Your Visit.

The IQM participates in the Lincoln’s First Friday Artwalk. That includes free admission at this museum from 4:00-7:00 p.m. the first Friday of each month so visitors can tour galleries and see new exhibits.

On the fourth Tuesday of each month from May through October, talks at noon featuring a quilter provide in depth information about current and upcoming displays. These talks are included in the admission fee and are held in the Campbell/Hodder Education Classroom.

Quilt Identification Days will occur on August 18, 2019 and October 27, 2019. The museum’s trained staff and volunteers will examine visitors’ quilts and provide information about patterns, fabrics, styles, and estimated age. The museum will create a history form and documentation label for each quilt. The fee for the first quilt is $26 and $20 for the second.

Complimentary docent-guided tours are available Tuesdays through Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. and Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. On the first Saturday of the month and the third Friday of the month, at noon, the museum offers a Behind-the Scenes Tour of the Byron and Sara Rhodes Dillow Conservation Work Room and Collectors Storage for $30. Tours are scheduled by calling the museum.

WHAT WE SAW

Singular Fascination, in the Coryell Gallery, dealt with a single shape used repeatedly throughout the quilt. These consisted of such shapes as hexagons, fence posts, one patch, four patch, and circles.

War and Pieced, in the West Gallery, consisted of quilts stitched by soldiers, sailors, and regimental tailors. Many were wall hung, used as table covers, or as game boards. The majority of quilts in this exhibits were pieced from milled wool broadcloth used from former British military and Prussian uniforms. These quilts were from the collection and on loan.

One, Soldier's Mosaic Quilt, bore similarities to those made by Jewett Washington Curtis, the only American soldier to have made mosaic quilts that were similar to those that British military men stitched. He served during the Civil War and helped maintain order in Alaska during the Gold Rush. He was related to Martha Washington.

Marti Mitchell and the Business of Quilts, in the Center Gallery, dealt with Mitchell and how she developed quilting into a commercial business. Color and Contour: Provencal Quilt and Domestic Objects in the Gottsch Gallery, consisted of quilts evoking the south of France. Based on a single color such as brown, yellow, or purple, they were part of the permanent collection.

In the hall, we spotted the quilt labeled Kitty on a Rug by Molly Anderson. We also saw Big Blue which is a quilt serving as a memorial to Ardis James. It was her first quilt.

Exhibits rotate more frequently in the smaller Beaver Gallery upstairs and Pumphrey Gallery on the main level with new shows every six to twelve weeks.

ON DISPLAY NOW

The museum currently has six new exhibits. One honors Studio Art Quilt Associates’ 30th anniversary. This group formed in 1989 in Atlanta with 50 members and now has 3,400 members who made the 30 quilts on display. This exhibit is on to August 4.

Collecting and Recollecting features quilts from three of India’s states and is on to August 18.

150 Years of Red and White are quilts from the Education Collection of the University. They range from the period of the university’s founding through the 1990s. Shown to September 8.

Whimsey looks at the whimsical side of quilts in both subject matter and design. This exhibit ends November 30.

Liz Axelrod: Overlay featuring her art quilts runs to September 22. Kathy Caraccio: Quilt Series is a sampling of her quilts from 1972 through the early 1990's. This runs to September 29.

For details on these, go to the museum’s link on Exhibitions.

DETAILS:

The International Quilt Museum is located at 1523 N. 33rd Street in Lincoln. Its telephone number is (402) 472-6549. Hours are closed on Monday; Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; and on Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. from February through November. Admissions are adults $8; seniors, ages 65+ $6; children, ages 5 to 18, $4; under age 5 free. For a family (up to two adults with dependent children or grandchildren 18 and under), the rate is $16. It’s free for active military and their families between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

CENTER FOR GREAT PLAINS STUDIES

The Center for Great Plains Studies was established in 1976 at the University of Nebraska. Its mission is to collect, preserve, research, and interpret the art and literature of the Great Plains. You might think of the Great Plains as a small area. But it’s not. It stretches westward from the Missouri River to the front range of the Rocky Mountains and northward from the Texas Panhandle into the Canadian Prairie Provinces. The University of Nebraska is one of the few United States universities covering this topic.

The Center does this through its extensive library and its Great Plains Art Museum displaying works of a variety of artisans including painters, drawers, architects, photographers, and designers. The museum consists of temporary exhibits in two large rooms on the main level and one on the lower level. Displays of artwork from its permanent collections are usually included. Exhibits change six or seven times a year.

THE ART MUSEUM AND LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

The museum opened in 1981 with the Christlieb collection donated by John and Elizabeth Christlieb of Bellevue, Nebraska. They donated their valued collection of western art, a library of western Americana, and an endowment to ensure the care and maintenance of this collection.

The artwork they donated consists of bronze sculptures, paintings and drawings, as well as other works on paper, and photographs. It includes such noted artists as Albert Bierstadt, Robert Fletcher Gilder, William Henry Jackson, Frederic Remington, and Charles M. Russell. The library they contributed consisted of 7,000 novels and nonfiction books about the West and Great Plains.

With several other book collections having been donated, the Center’s library is now around 8,000 books. For example, the Hillegass Book Collection consists of 400 books of American West history and art titles including several first editions. The Regina Book Collection concentrates on more than 1100 Canadian Plains materials dating from the late 19th century to the present. They also have a collection of North American western fiction and dime novels.

Since the museum’s founding, other art collections have also been donated making the total permanent collection approximately 8,500 pieces. The Broder Collection consists of more than 50 paintings encompassing a range of Native American artworks. These include artists who are of Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo, and Cherokee descent as well as artists from such Plains tribes as Osage, Kiowa, Comanche, and Sioux. The paintings in this collection date from the early 20th century to the 1980s and vary in style and subject matter. Many of the artists used their knowledge of their own group’s motifs or symbols from pottery, murals, petroglyphs, and buffalo hide paintings to create their own works.

Depending on which artwork is displayed, you might see a wide variety of media such as watercolor, acrylic, tempera, chalk, and ink. Subjects include dancers, ceremonies, children, and animals with styles ranging from strongly representational to abstract.

Charles W. Guildner’s Lives of Tradition photos capture the landscape and lives of the people in the rural areas in the early 1900s. The Great Plains Art Museum houses not only his photos but his negatives as well.

The Dwight and John Kirsch Collection consists of 700 artworks. Dwight Kirsch was a teacher and artist who worked with the Nebraska Art Association, the University of Nebraska Art Collection, and the Des Moines Art Center.

John Kirsch, Dwight’s son, created artwork in oils, acrylics, and pastels. Unfortunately, the fire in his New York apartment led to the burning of many of his finest pieces. During his lifetime, several museums acquired his work. He was commissioned to paint portraits and had numerous two-man art shows with his father. He created much of his artwork in Mexico and Europe.

The Mark and Carol Moseman Collection of Agrarian Art concentrates on the plains’ landscapes, particularly its weather and environment, along with its people. Their emphasis is on modern regionalism from the Great Plains.

In 2007, the Great Plains Art Museum started an artist-in-residence program. The museum commissions artworks which are done on site in the Elizabeth Rubendall Artist-in-Residence Studio and Education Lab and then become part of the permanent collection.

WHAT WE SAW

Visitors are first greeted by sculptures outside of the museum. On the Trail of Discovery by George W. Lundeen commemorates the journey of Lewis and Clark from 1804 through 1806. The other is Veryl Goodnight’s No Turning Back.

Inside, we saw an exhibition by Robert Lee Taylor, an Oklahoma Native American who was self taught. He is best known for his use of iconic symbols. Oddities, in the other main level room, consisted of artworks from the permanent collections that stood out or were not related to the Great Plains. We also saw Pumping Stone by Pete Felton, a limestone piece he sculpted in 2001.

Downstairs was Art and Poetry of the Barada Hills. It combined John Frederick Lokke’s watercolors with Jan Chism’s poems to tell a story about the rolling hills of southeast Nebraska.

ON DISPLAY NOW

Hills Snyder: Altered States (Part Five) is running between July 19 and October 19. It is an exhibition of several dozen drawings based on travels to such places as Nowhere, Oklahoma and Happy, Texas. American West Masters is shown until August 24. It features art from the permanent collection by artists who were key players in picturing the American West. These include Albert Bierstadt, Karl Bodmer, William Henry Jackson, Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and Olaf Weighorst. For more information, check out their web site.

DETAILS:

The Center and the art museum are housed at 1155 Q Street. The phone number is (402) 472-6220. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is closed Mondays, Sundays, and holiday weekends. Admission is free.

NEBRASKA DAIRY STORE

After all the museum touring, you might be hungry for a snack. Head for the Nebraska Dairy Store for some homemade ice cream or cheese made on site with premium ingredients. The store has been a campus tradition since 1917 when it first served all-you-can-drink milk. All you needed was a nickel and a cup.

Big 10 flavors are offered at all times along with seasonal and rotational flavors. Their signature is the fresh strawberry-swirled vanilla flavor Scarlet & Cream. They also serve eight cheese flavors with Husker Cheese being a favorite. Consumers can also buy meats from the Animal Science Department, Nebraska-produced honey, and fresh eggs from the Poultry Department. Fourteen varieties of gift boxes and baskets are offered year round.

If you can’t make it to their store, go to their online UNL marketplace to shop for cheese gift and Nebraska-shaped baskets filled with their products.

DETAILS:

The store is located North off of Holdrege between 37th and 38th on Dairy Store Drive in the Food Industry Complex. For more information, call (402) 472-2828 or go to their web site. Hours are January through March: Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and weekends 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. During April through December, they’re open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.