This is an exhibit about the trial that took place in the Law Building on campus in May and June of 1918 over the disloyalty of professors who spoke about United States involvement in World War I.

"Shout, sound out, sound out loud and clear! 

Let the team all know the Band is here. 

Sons of old Nebraska if someone should ask ya

We're the Scarlet and the Cream!"
-- Nebraska Band Song

In 1879 at the University of Nebraska Lt. Webster founded an inexperienced twelve member band with the intention of provoking interest in military drill.¹  One hundred and thirty years later, the Cornhusker Marching Band is a 290 strong group of highly trained musicians whose most contact with the military is a once a year armed forces tribute.

Though it was created under the wing of the military department, the band soon asserted itself on the campus as a spirit rallying force, a concert band, and a beloved university icon.  It would take decades before the band’s journey from a military to a primarily musical and athletic organization would be completed.  Financial support, changing societal standards, and community pressure would define the struggle waged over the type of group that the “University of Nebraska Military Cadet Band” would eventually become.

The Pride of All Nebraska project is a collection of documents, photographs, and letters from this transitional time in the band's history.  Begin by reading more about the project, starting at the beginning, or directly browsing the sources.

How to Use This Site

This site is a project for History 470: Digital History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  Digital history is a method, a tool, or perhaps even a sub-field within history.  The concept of digital history is relatively new and its direction and potential have not been completely realized at this time.  The projects for Hist 470 were created within the Omeka publishing platform and seek to test the abilities and boundaries of this building tool.  Omeka enables viewers to click on an "item" (for example the scan of a book cover to the left) and be directed to a page displaying information about the item and keywords linking the item to other similar items.  Viewers can display the item at its full size by clicking a second time upon the image.  Most of the images scanned for this collection are displayed within the pages as thumbnails, but can be viewed at their actual size.

The Pride of All Nebraska project uses the techniques of digital history to the advantage of those interested in the Nebraska band's history who do not have access or time to dig around in the archives for themselves.  For these individuals the Sources section of the collection was intentionally created in the hopes that browsing would be made easier.

But what separates a digital archival collection from a digital history collection is the analysis.  The Military Foundation and Growing Identity sections of the collection seek to sort out and explain what happened and why the band grew away from its military roots.  These sections are largely chronological.

During the mid-1930s, a revolution took place on campus. One that wasn't violent, or even really demonstrated. One that would result in a building being built on campus for one purpose: to bring the students of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln together under one roof for any activity desired.

Ever since its creation, the Student Union has been the centerpoint of student attention on the University of Nebraska's City Campus. Located at 14th and R Streets, it is one of the major hotspots in downtown Lincoln.

The Student Union's history is interesting to say the least. Many college campuses across the world have buildings dedicated to bringing the students together, but they haven't always existed. The idea of student unionism has been around for centuries, but never really implemented into modernized universities until the late 19th century. The Student Union at St. Andrews in Britain is the oldest union in the United Kingdom, having been established in 1864.

Nebraska's Student Union was an idea that had been shuffled around in the faculty for quite some time, a need addressed by Chancellor E. A. Burnett in his memo title "The Student Activities Building in 1937. This idea was embraced by the student population immediately, and was spread to the rest of the city soon after. At the time, the city of Lincoln was much smaller; much more influenced by the University and its plans. The University was swallowing land the city had once owned extremely quickly.

News spread rapidly in December 1936 with the announcement of the construction of the Student Union. This led to the rest of the University rallying support for the Union, providing the other $200,000 in bonds that were to be paid back by February 1943. These bonds were used to pay the construction companies, while the bonds would actually be paid off with student / faculty fees over the next several years.

Planning took place, and letters were sent out. The Alumni Association volunteered to furnish the Union, and sent out donation letters discussing why the Student Union matters to the alumni. Other letters and memos were sent out discussing what faculty would want to pay for to use in the Union, what they would even use the Union for, and how they could become members of the Union.

Once the construction companies had been chosen, the real work began. The building was finished by May 1938, and when it was, the hype for the Union was already too much. Flyers, posters, and articles had already come out, discussing how the Union would revolutionize the University of Nebraska's campus.

Read through the letters and documents to see for yourself how excited both the faculty and students were to finally have a place they could get away from all the classroom instruction, hallways, and the mess of grading papers. After that is all said and done, take a look at how significant the Union is to our University today.

Project Development

Dustin Lipskey created this website as part of the requirements for History 470, Digital History, a class dedicated to learning about digital humanities. This website is a product of digital humanities, and helps preserve our once book-only history in a digital format. It provides a non-linear, web-based approach to reading and understanding our history.

The topic discussing the Student Union was chosen because of the central impact the Union has on our every day lives attending the University. Since the history of the Union is so broad, it was chosen to only study the publications and the reactions of those surrounded by the idea of a student center on the University's land.

The purpose of this site is to show the reader the concrete evidence on how the people involved in this revolutionary project did their work, how they conveyed their feelings, and what it really did to impact the University the way it did.

What happened between the years of 1936 and 1939 just, to put it simply "got the ball rolling" on changing the social background of the University. It became a much more social, more inviting place to come and study. It kept the students wanting to come back for more learning, social experiences, and activities.

That all started with the Student Union.

This exhibit tells the story of the recall and censorship of the 1912 Cornhusker resulting from Chancellor Samuel Avery's objections to the content and attitude of many of the cartoons featured in the yearbook.

Dana VanDusen, the editor of the 1912 Cornhusker, predicted more than once within the pages of the yearbook that he might upset some of his readers with many cartoons depicting drinking, gambling as well as an uneasy relationship between the University and the Legislature. What he might not have predicted is that Chancellor Avery would recall the books and have the objectionable pages removed. Because of this, there are three known versions of the 1912 yearbook in existence: the complete and uncensored version and two censored versions—one with pages and specific sections blacked out, and the other missing the corresponding pages.

This exhibit tells the story of John J. Pershing, Roscoe Pound, and the 1917 University of Nebraska Commencement.

In 1917, General John J. Pershing was invited to come back and speak at the commencement excercises at the University of Nebraska.  He happily accepted the invitation and looked forward to his return to Lincoln.  But, as the First World War began to intensify, the United States military also wanted Pershing to command the U.S. Forces. He declined the invitation to speak.  Left without a speaker, Chancellor Samuel Avery needed to figure out a solution. He called on another distinguished alumni, Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Harvard University Law School.  Pound accepted and gave the address.

This exhibit is designed to show the work that was put into getting the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Memorial Stadium built as a living memorial to Nebraska's soldiers who fought in World War I.  This exhibit includes the original project proposals, the fundraising effort undertaken at the time, and the ceremonies that marked the groundbreaking and commemoration of the stadium.

This project explores the ways in which the University of Nebraska-Lincoln commemorates the legacy of Willa Cather on campus and some possible reasons behind it.

This exhibit explores the story behind the construction of the Broyhill Fountain near the University of Nebraska's city campus Union and how it has evolved over time.

The fountain that exists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Union has long been a focal point of the city campus. Many students spend time near it or pass by multiple times daily, yet are unaware that there is actually an interesting story behind the fountain and that it was constructed as a commemeration for a student, Lynn Diann Broyhill, who had tragically died.

This project aims to provide information on the story behind the fountain through presenting a biography of Broyhill, exploring the construction and dedication of the original fountain, and telling of the reconstruction and rededication of the fountain to how it is seen today.

This exhibit commemorates the contibutions of General Pershing to the University of Nebraska during his time as head of the Military Department, as a faculty member, and the legacy he has left in the city of Lincoln

The Porch is a commemoration to S. W. Perin, the college farm superintendent who worked there from 1889 to 1930. S. W. Perin was known for taking care of the farm and fostering its growth into what East Campus is today.

This exhibit focuses on the 1920s in the University's history.  The '20s were a time of identity crisis for the country and the University. WWI had just ended in 1918 and the United States was recovering and rediscovering themselves.  As for the University, there was no post-war recuperating, but there was plenty of soul-searching as to what type of school the University would be.  With the construction of Memorial Stadium, athletics were becoming just as important as academics.  And much like the U.S. presidents of the 1920s, the administration during the 1920s at the University did not exhibit strong leadership.  Decisions regarding new colleges were plentiful during this era; decisions that would ultimately define the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as what it is today.

This exhibit examines college life in the 1910s at the young University of Nebraska dealing with the shock of World War I, the changes that came with it, and how dark times led to hope for a brighter future.

This exhibit is about the University of Nebraska-Lincoln during the 1960s and its growth during this time.

The decade of the 1940s was one that was clearly divided into two parts: wartime and peacetime. The outbreak of World War II had a profound effect on the entire country, including the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. When the dust settled, a new culture developed on campus. This project traces the history of UNL during the1940s.