New hours, displays at Norris

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Things may look quiet at the George Norris State Historic Site, but there is activity that you should be aware of, according to Linda Hein, site supervisor.

As of July 1, the hours of operation at the site changed to being open afternoons only, 1-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Winter hours will be instituted for the first time in many years. Starting the first of October and continuing through the first of March, the site will be open to the public only on Friday afternoons, 1-4:30.

People are invited to call the site at 345-8484 for special group tours for 4-H clubs, sororities or any organizational meetings at any time.

September is the traditional month for displaying Pre-World War II quilts. The show will go on this year and Hein is looking for older quilts to display. The quilts need to be made or pieced before the end of World War II ... they can be old quilt tops which have been recently quilted, just as long as some of the work was done during that time period.

These quilts will be displayed in the historic home of Sen. George W. Norris from Sept. 2-30. The house was built in 1886, remodeled in 1931 and is filled with all the original furnishings ... so it's a wonderful place to display vintage quilts.

The Norris Site also has a special display celebrating the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Nebraska State Historical Society. Some of the "treasures of the state" are being displayed around the state at the various branch museums.

A group of items with a local connection this month are a hat and gloves worn by U.S. Sen. George W. Norris. The second object in the display is a discoidal from Sarpy County. This unique artifact is made from a hard glacial stone called diorite and was recovered from an earthlodge ruin in Sarpy County dating to the 13th century.

These objects are "discoidals" or "chunky stones" and were used in a court game associated with the Mississippian culture of the Midwest. The eastern Nebraska Indians of this period had occasional contact with those in the Mississippi valley, and this discoidal stone may have arrived here as a trade item.

The third display in the case for August involves the Uriah Oblinger family letters, written from 1862 to 1911. On display is the original of a letter from Uriah Oblinger to his wife Mattie and daughter Ella Oblinger, March 9, 1873. The collection of letters is one of the most important sources available for studying the homesteading experience on the Great Plains. One of the labels in the display states: "The eloquent letters exchanged between Uriah and Mattie, and letters to other family members, express very personal insight into the joy, despair, and determination of their struggle to establish a home on the prairie. At the heart of the correspondence lies the story of land and its settlement, and of Uriah's lifelong attempts to settle and prosper on a farm of his own."

In 1998 the Nebraska State Historical Society received an award from the Library of Congress and Ameritech to digitize the Uriah Oblinger Family Collection. More letters, photographs, and information about the Oblinger Family are available online at the American Memory Web site under the title "Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters," which can be reached through a link on the Nebraska State Historical Society Web site:

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/manuscrt/family.htm

or directly on the Library of Congress Site at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/pshome.html.

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