NE Day 3 - Paintings, Pizza, and the Past
I don’t know what I was thinking today, but somehow I tried to give this day a go without getting any morning coffee so I was really changing things up. Maybe I actually got a normal amount of sleep (doubtful), maybe I was just trying to save a little money, or maybe I just got a little bit of a late start and didn’t want to miss out on a full day of exploring Omaha since it was going to be my last full day in the city.
Whatever the reason, I started the day by going right to the city (and perhaps the state)’s biggest art museum, the Joslyn Art Museum. The museum, founded by the Sarah Joslyn the wife of wealthy newspaper man George Joslyn (the couple also happens to have built lived in the only castle in town, no big deal), features the most comprehensive permanent collection in the state featuring works from American and European masters, as well as important works from Native Americans of the plains, and a sizable contemporary collection. Before you even get into the museum though, they have a world class sculpture garden dotting the grounds of the gorgeous pink marble building. Near the entrance were two I really enjoyed: on the right Tom Otterness’ round cartoony depiction of a pipe-smoking settler woman and her ox called Large Covered Wagon, and to the right a more realistic but still hyper-stylized and dramatic sculpture of a Sioux Warrior by John David Brcin ( the last name is Serbian).
Entering the museum, I started with the Medieval and Renaissance art which meant lots of early Christian imagery and anatomical oddities. Highlights here included: a monk who seems shocked by his own good fortune to have three potatoes, a Mary Magdalene who looks like she’s weirdly made of hair, and a couple of fantastically chunky baby Christs.
The piece that really took the cake though was this scene of Jesus appearing during a Mass by Pope Gregory and seemingly shooting blood out his stigmata while tap dancing. I think it’s supposed to convey a sense of religious significance, but as rendered it just looks like Jesus doing a really wild party trick. Also the perspective of this thing is just off the walls, and the relative size of every person is impossible to make sense of.
Next was a step even further back into antiquity with a collection of incredible Greek pottery. It’s always insane to me that people decided to tell grand mythic narratives on the same things they used to put wine and olive oil in, and then somehow created some of the greatest art to survive from their time. The blend of form and function is just unbelievable.
Past these exhibits, I entered the museum courtyard which really let the phenomenal art deco architecture shine, with grand marble columns, a lavish multi-tiered fountain covered in vividly colored tiles, and sleek geometrically patterned lighting fixtures.
The next gallery jumped to more modern European art from the 19th century, featuring really beautiful, richly detailed backdrops and people that actually look like humans (even if some of the facial expressions are a little goofy, looking at you top right corner).
My favorites here included: a moody scene inspired by Paradise Lost of two fallen angels contemplating their decisions by Édouard Cibot; a dazzling slice rural romanticism (which was considered shocking at the time) by Jules Breton of peasant women weeding rows of plants into the twilight hours, elevating their grueling labor into high art; another sweeter scene by Breton depicting a family with young children returning from the fields capturing a moment of playfulness after a long day of work; and the utterly insane Return of Spring by William Adolphe Bouguereau which is as strikingly lovely as it is deeply unnerving in its symbolism of a young women being positively pestered by cherubic little angels. It’s a real wild piece, but you gotta admit it makes an impression, and it’s hard to imagine it not drawing your eyes in whatever room its in.
There was a cool subsection of the gallery highlighting the Orientalism phase in European art that began in France when Western artists started imitating and incorporating stylistic flourishes and stories from Middle Eastern and Far Eastern Culture. On the one hand, it speaks to a certain degree of what looks to modern eyes like cultural appropriation and fetishism, but on the other hand pieces like these did help open up the minds of snobbish European art dealers and critics to artistic worlds outside of the continent and they’re fun historical documents of a world that was a lot more globally connected than it tends to be presented as. Evaluating them critically and historically can get pretty conflicting and murky, but purely aesthetically the pieces in the museum’s collection were all really pretty.
Amidst all these fabulous paintings, there was a pretty dramatic sculpture of a lioness striking down an antelope by the great French animal Sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye (animal sculptor here meaning that he made sculptures of animals not that he was animal who sculpted which would have been really cool).
The next room was all Impressionism, collecting some impressive pieces by masters like Monet, Renoir, Matisse, and Degas among others, and it was just an explosion of colors and style compared to the more realist and romantic earlier European works.
My favorites here included: a lush Spanish garden by Martin Rico y Ortega; a bright and vibrant pointillist scene of women tending Hay; a gauzy city street scene by Albert Andre; and relaxed, elegant portrait by Mary Cassatt of a woman reading.
Next up was a room dedicated to the art of design featuring some really spectacular wood working, an elaborate fireplace, and unbelievable glass windows:
Next up was the start of the American wing, which began with early colonial and 19th century art which featured stunning landscapes and freakish Children of the Corn looking portraiture.
The collection really took off with the pieces from the American West when artists were either sent by wealthy patrons or their own curiosity to explore and document the landscapes and people of the “new frontier”. The accuracy of these white artists’ representations really varies from artist to artist depending on their own agendas, but an incredible collection (the largest in the world!) of water colors by the artist Karl Bodmer which are widely celebrated for both their richness of detail and their accuracy.
Luckily the collection also allowed Native American artists to speak for themselves (shockingly not always a given), which featured a nice mix of actual traditional arts and crafts from different Plains tribes including woven vests, shields, animal hide shirts, and even beaded lunch boxes!
Other highlights of the Western collection, for me at least included these more cinematic scenes including: a piece by N.C. Wyeth that was commissioned as an illustration for Fisk Cord Tires but looks like he really took that brief and ran with it; a really chilling piece by John Stuart Curry of a lynching party hitting the trail; and funny, dramatic piece by William Leigh where the horse bucks the cowboy practically out of the painting.
Next up was some slightly more modern turn of the century pieces echoing European romantic, realist, and impressionist movements. I think something about the wide open-ness of the American West really leant itself to grand sweeping vistas, and it’s fun seeing different interpretations of similar subjects through different styles. Though naturally my boy Albert Bierstadt is always a standout even amongst other great landscape artists.
My favorites here were more people focused scenes though because they made the times feel more alive and emotional than the landscapes even if they were beautiful. My favorites included: some spooky Bohemian couples by Guy Pene Du Bois; a trio of stoic fisherman by Gifford Beal; a brooding gorgeous portrait by Robert Henri called Conseulo in Black; an elegant portrait of an a aristocratic woman by John Singer Sargent; a sweet, funny, and quietly racially progressive painting of a group of children enjoying a card trick by John George Brown; a resplendent portrait of the leisure class in repose by William Merritt Chase; a gloomy portrait of an elderly man hobbling back from working in the fields long past the age of retirement by George Inness; a warm playful scene of young boatmen taking a night shift watching over the cargo by George Caleb Bingham; and a hypnotically beautiful scene of a woman crossing a rainy street by the great American Impressionist Childe Hassam.
One really fun bit of curation was the pairing of an incredibly expressionist painting of a hailstorm by Thomas Hart Benton with a cheeky bit of conceptual art by contemporary artist John Baldessari which intentionally juxtaposes that painting with one by Benton’s most famous student, Jackson Pollack, and then for added dada-ism obscures both paintings with big white squares. I think the point of the Baldessari piece (insomuch as one should look for a point in art) is to make viewers draw parallels between seemingly disparate pieces of art and to show how the ways in which all art is connected. In a weird way, seeing the conceptual piece next to the original really heightened both adding history to the modern piece and highlighting just how experimental the original really is.
Leaving these galleries, I really loved the choice to highlight the art deco architecture with great bronze deco-style statues along the hallways:
From there, I bid farewell to the original building and made my way to the modern extension where the contemporary wing and the special exhibits were held. Transitioning from old to new, visitors are greeted by a jaw-dropping glass installation by Dale Chihuly that doesn’t look possible, the way everything is so delicately balanced.
The special exhibit while I was there was a traveling exhibit entitled Treasures of British Art 1400-2000 organized by the Denver Art Museum. I really loved the breadth of the exhibit covering such an expansive time period because you really get to see how changing cultural values play out through the art. Personally, I skewed towards liking relatively more recent works as most of the stuff from the 15th century was just Royal portraiture which is interesting but not really my jam. Because it was on loan from another museum, the exhibit didn’t allow photography, but I was able to find a number of my favorite pieces through Google images. Highlights for me included: one of the earliest known family portraits in all of British Art entitled Alice Barnham and her Sons by an unknown artist; a dramatic sea scene by Adriaen van Diest depicting The Battle of Lowestoft which we all know so well was a naval battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War; a technically impressive but hilariously absurd painting by William Etty very matter of factly called Reclining Female Nude in a Landscape with Two Dogs; a portrait of British Pop Art innovator David Hockney done reflexively in his style by Adam Birtwistle; an insane painting of Mt. Vesuvius erupting by William Marlo; a series of dreamlike watercolors and prints by Edward Lear and David Roberts depicting exotic landscapes from around the world; a moody depiction of a stormy sky by British abstract expressionist Sir Howard Hodgkin which boldly features brush strokes leaving the frame; a vibrant print by Sir Claude Francis Barry depicting Victory Celebrations from the end of WWI; and a resplendent Biblical scene by Benjamin West called The Ascension.
After the special exhibition, I made my way through the Modern and Contemporary wing, which began with a survey 20th century art trends, from the first post-war modernists to abstract expressionism to pop art to today. My favorites included: a cubist painting of storm winds blowing by Raymond Johnson; a dark and foreboding scene of a country road at night by George C. Ault; a strangely calming geometric abstraction by Manierre Dawson; a jazzy medley of surrealist imagery by Stuart Davis; a gorgeous minimalist Western landscape by Marsden Hartley; and a very rude still life by Tom Wesselmann which looks lit was collaged from glossy magazines despite being all oil on canvas!
When it comes to the more contemporary art, I gravitated towards things that were more strange or formally interesting, and I always love anything that combines lots of different kinds of artistic styles. My personal favorites included: a fantastic pop-art melange of Eastern and Western iconography by Roger Shimomura; a disarmingly mundane scene of nude models lounging near a toy plane and toy car oddly stretched to David Lynch-ian proportions by artist Philip Pearlstein; a fascinatingly beautiful piece by Iranian artist Hayv Kahraman deftly blending traditional Iranian figures, subversively modern gender politics, and quilt-work cut and interwoven into the larger linen of the full painting; a proudly unaesthetic nude portrait of identical twins Julie Schwer and Jane Schwer by Alfred Leslie which captures some remarkably game subjects really willing to show their bodies as normal human vessels as opposed to idealized fantasies; a vivacious blend of samurais and street art spray painted across a found piece of wood by the artist Rozeal; and a series of pieces by Wanda Ewing called Black as Pitch Hot as Hell which combine highly radicalized imagery with 1950s pin up art as a comment on historical representations of Black Feminity.
The most technically impressive piece was called “I walked to find you grey” by Kon Trubkovich which faithfully recreates grainy VHS footage of Ronald Reagan giving a speech post-Chernobyl done entirely in oil on canvas. It’s just insane that the artist so accurately recreated an entirely different medium to the point where it looks like a still image, and the added benefit it of working as a meditation on historical memory and the legacy of Reagan is just icing on top.
Next up was the pure abstractions, which were really interesting but understandably more hit or miss in whether they connect with you or not . My favorites here were: an insane three dimensional swirling construction by Frank Stella; a Jackson Pollack where for whatever reason the mix of colors and splash patterns really worked for me; a Helen Frankethahler piece that almost seems to float above the canvas the more you look at it; a surreal geometric dreamscape by Kay Sage; a soothing series of sea colored stripes by Gene Davis enigmatically named Friar Tuck; and another Frank Stella piece that seems really simple but serves to create a really cool optical illusion of one square sinking and one square rising using only varying color gradients.
For really pieces that explored creative use of medium, I really loved a piece by Doug Aitken which used an aluminum light box to illuminate a beautiful photographic print of a city at night seemingly to dazzle you to the point of not quite noticing the hilariously unrelate phrase “Hot Mess” just floating in the sky and an entire tableau by George Segal called Times Square at Night that combines plaster sculptures photography and lighting to recreate the seedy Times Square of yesteryear where a Pancake House may exist right next to billboards for uninhibited sex.
Next up was a special exhibit of pieces by contemporary ceramicist Arlene Shechet. I’ve gotta admit most of the pieces here were sort of ugly, the kind of the things that almost look more like a parody of modern art, but I eventually came around a little bit when I read about just how difficult and innovative making such unpleasant shapes structurally sound through ceramics really is. Like they may not be super nice to look at, but they are uniquely not nice to look at.
Last but not least on this floor, there was a collection of pieces by local school children trying to emulate pop art with an impressively nonsensical purity to them:
Next up was special exhibit of artwork from children’s books by the illustrator Mark McTeague. It made me so happy to see the silly, colorful, youthfully creative imagery that would have delighted me as a young kid appreciated for its artistic merit by a major museum. Themes ranged from Dinosaurs trying to do everyday tasks, dogs running foe public office, and lots of animals generally behaving oddly:
After the children’s book art, there was a really sweet community art gallery where immigrants and refugees in Omaha took photos of things they brought from home on crisp white backdrops and annotations about their significance. The annotations were all written in people’s native languages, but text on the side had everything translated in English revealing all the way little objects can pack a great deal of meaning. It was really a lovely way of letting people tell their stories.
Next up was the Asian Wing, which was relatively small but filled with really incredible pieces from China, Japan, Korea, and India.
My favorite piece here was an eight panel wood and red lacquer screen by an unknown artist from the Kangxi period (1662-1722). The carving was just so intricate, and the red from the lacquer had a really calming sheen to it.
Last but not least was the museum’s collection of Modern and Contemporary works by Native American artists. I always love seeing these pieces because I do find that contemporary Native art is probably the most overlooked in museums around the country despite being a still very much rich and vibrant art scene. The first half of the gallery was really all recent works in traditional media such as ceramics, weaving, carving, and beadwork. These pieces all did an impressive job both honoring tradition but still adding very modern stylistic flourishes. I also liked that pieces represented tribes from the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest and not just the Plains, because sometimes museums can treat Native Americans as a mono-culture which really white washes a lot of the cultural and stylistic diversity present throughout different Native Communities.
My favorite pieces though were naturally the more overtly contemporary pieces just because they were the most like nothing I’d seen before. The highlights for me were: A Basquiat-esque lithograph blending watercolors, petroglyphs, historical imagery, cartoons, and racist advertisements into a really stunning final piece by Jaune Quick-To-See Smith; an incredible sculpture by an artist whose name is unfortunately too blurry to read in my photo of an old woman who has symbols of history and nature flowing out of her hair and clothes; a satirical collage by Arthur Amiotte entitled New Horse Power 1913 which humorously reimagines old car ads being targeted at Native Americans seeking to strike envy into their white neighbor; a sad, surreal portrait by Fritz Scholder entitled American Portrait as a White Man, which puts a slightly tongue in cheek spin on a very real struggle with what racial identity means in this country; an equally impressive and funny sculpture by Bob Haozous entitled Portable Pueblo which features a little wagon with metal sculptures of stereotypical Southwestern imagery so you can bring the stereotypes to the tourists as opposed to them going there looking for them; and lastly a sweet scene by Roxanne Swentzell of four women in Pre-Columbian times preparing for a Corn Dance which only becomes more insane when you realize that each person is made from ceramics as opposed to more traditional sculpting techniques, which fully blew my mind.
Back outside, I did a quick loop around the building to peruse the sculpture garden and enjoy the beautiful day. Highlights included: realizing the Tom Otterness covered wagon sculpture I’d seen going in had a hilariously rude addition around the back; an incredibly graceful bronze sculpture called the Spirit of the Dance by William Zorach; and a strangely mesmerizing giant ceramic sculpture by Jun Kaneko.
Most impressive though was the massive installation Omaha Riverscape by Jesus Morales which features a water fountain, towering stone obelisks, and a granite reflecting pool with the shape of the Missouri River’s path through Omaha cut into it. It was really a perfect compliment to the grand exterior of the museum.
After all that museum-ing, I had worked up a hefty appetite so I made my way to Block 16, a restaurant specializing in locally sourced food (often from the award-winning chefs’ own farm) and creative menu items that break down barriers between “low” and “high” food. They showed up on my radar because Celebrity-chef Alton Brown called one of their speciality burgers the best hamburger in the country so how could I not check it out? The burger in question is called the Croque Garcon Burger which features a 1/3lb juicy burger, ham, cheese, and a sunny-side up egg on a ciabatta roll. I’ll admit I was a little skeptical of the praise heaped on this burger, but I was pleasantly blown away by how every component works in harmony to elevate the whole burger. The basic patty is fantastic local beef giving the burger a more than solid foundation, the ham gives a smokier flavor to everything, and when you bite into the yolk it just ties it all together. It was a perfect lunch.
After lunch, I dragged my belly down to my next stop for the day: The Durham Museum. Before I could begin with the museum though, I had to snap a picture of the view from the parking lot of the Omaha skyline. I think the fact that I didn’t do more of these general pictures of the cities I visited really do a disservice to the blog as a whole, but also I’m glad I have the ones I got.
The Durham Museum is a museum of Western History, and is consistently ranked as a must see in the area. This is partially because it is housed in the former Union Station building, a major Union-Pacific Railroad terminal for all of the midwest, and the building alone would be worth the price of admission. Because Omaha is pretty smack dab in the middle of the country, the station was a stopping point for hundreds of thousands of passengers and it’s truly gigantic. More than just it’s sheer size, the city of Omaha really wanted to wow travelers (and hopefully entice them to stick around for a bit and spend some money) so they basically gave architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood free rein to create the Art Deco masterpiece of his dreams. The exterior is marked by cream-colored terra cotta pillars, swirling abstract reliefs, and tributes to railway workers above the doorways which seem to just morph out of the bricks.
Stepping into the main lobby though, visitors are treated to a real jaw-dropping visual experience. The Great Hall is 60 feet by 72 feet with a soaring 60 ft. high ceiling. The ceiling has designs of sculpted plaster accentuated with gold and silver trim for added luxury, the floor is shining Belgian Marble, stained glass windows evoke cathedrals more than train stations, and the whole room space is lit by six immense, gorgeously patterned chandeliers. It’s liking walking into a time capsule of everything the Jazz Age wanted to be, and the time machine vibe is only helped by the fact that you pick up your ticket to the museum at the old train ticket kiosks.
Giving the Hall a dreamy sense of a bustling station from another place and time, bronze sculptures by local artist John Lajba bring recreate alarmingly life-like scenes of daily life from passengers long gone:
I loved that the original train station cafe had been totally renovated to its former glory as a retro-cool Soda Fountain and Candy Shop where visitors can pick up classic diner fare like sandwiches, ice cream sundaes, or malted shakes.
When I was able to get my jaw off the floor of the Great Hall, I started checking out the exhibitions themselves which were uniformly pretty great. The first exhibited was about the history of photographing the West, with a neat little collection of vintage cameras tracing the evolution of the technology.
Of course while the cameras themselves were cool, the star of the show were actual beautiful black and white photographs by Charles W. Guildner of modern day cowboys and cowgirls and magnificent Western vistas.
Walking to the stairs down to the main exhibits, you got to see one of the marble reliefs of a railroad worker up close to really appreciate all the incredible Art Deco detailing.
The first exhibit on the next floor really makes full use of the monumental size of the Union Station by housing a collection of vintage trains and trolleys which you just never expect to see inside a building.
The coolest part of this exhibit is that you can actually go aboard one of the trains and see Vintage Pullman cars from 40s and 50s. It was really cool to get to have that kind of interactive experience, but I have to admit I died laughing at the poor phrasing above the entrance:
The train cars themselves were in amazing condition and it was so fascinating to just stroll through and get a feel for the way people used to travel.
Of course depending on your finances, some train cars were much more desirable than others, and I have to imagine that this car where the toilet was roughly a foot away from the seat must have been the absolute bottom of the barrel. I lost my mind imagining whoever designed this thought this arrangement was even remotely acceptable.
After the trains, there was a collection of slightly smaller forms of historic transportation including flatbed trucks for different supply companies, an original Ford Model A, and an electric car from 1920 which was advertised at the time with the hilarious slogan “Even the frailest of women could start this magnificent vehicle”
Along the wall across from the trolley and trains, there was an insanely detailed three dimensional mural by retired local illustrator Bill Shook which recreates an entire small Italian villa having a street festival. I’m not entirely sure how it tied into anything else other than the artist being from Omaha but it was such a hugely impressive and strange labor of love that you just had to appreciate it.
Next the historic vehicles got even smaller, with a massive functioning model train set replica of the rail-line from Omaha to Ogden. The scale of the set is the first thing that strikes you, but the thing that made the biggest impression on me was all the minute details like the beautifully rendered teeny-tiny drive in theater and all the little characters going about their work days.
From there the next couple galleries zoomed back out in scope recreating different historic houses and shops (Did I mention this place is massive?). First up was the porch of a farm house where townsfolk would have been able to pick up fresh produce.
Next up was a faithful replica of the Buffet Grocery originally opened up in 1915, down to period accurate food items and little model trains for the kids.
After that, we got to see a fancier home interior complete with the sort of art, jewelry, and tableware that would have been available to Omaha’s wealthier residents.
Next up was a kind of creepy tribute to the Omaha’s first hospital, with lots of vintage medical supplies and photographs from the early days of the hospital both of which were so much spookier than I think anyone in the curatorial department intended.
Next was a small display of different home goods showing the diverse backgrounds of Omaha’s first European immigrants.
Next up was a commendable gallery called Conflict Brings Change highlighting both injustices inherent to Omaha’s history as well as people from the area who stood up against the larger societal evils. Courageous fighters for civil rights included Ponca Indian Chief Standing Bear who won a major court case for Native American rights, Malcom X who was born Malcom Little in Omaha and whose family left the city due to pressures from the city’s chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, and suffragette Amelia Jenks Bloomer who made impassioned pleas for Women’s Rights before the Nebraska legislature in her name-sake liberating trousers.
Next up was a display about the influential local newspaper the Omaha World Herald, which was once edited by three time presidential loser William Jennings Bryan most famous for his “Cross of Gold” speech bemoaning the Gold Standard and his hilariously miscalculated attempt at arguing against Evolution in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. You also have to admire the museum from really not shying away from more horrific elements of Omaha history with their choice of vintage newspapers to display.
On a more upbeat note, the next display was about Father Flanagan & Boys Town which for being founded in 1917 was shockingly one of the first real major organizations to attempt the novel approach of treating homeless youths humanely. It’s amazing sometimes that the sometimes the simplest answers are the most revolutionary.
The next two displays were about the history of emergency workers in the area. Artifacts here included vintage police batons and handcuffs and a wheel from one of the old wheels from an early fire truck. Interesting facts were that every police position used to be an elected office so the entire force could turn change out in a single election, and Omaha had only volunteer firefighters until 1878 when a single rogue candle burned down the entire Grand Central Hotel inspiring the young city to invest in a permanent fire department. It’s so crazy how things we take for granted can be such new concepts on a historical timescale.
The next section was about the Arts in Omaha which featured some lovely photographs, paintings, and sketches by local artists circa the turn of the century, but for whatever reason the thing that impressed me most was this super elaborate decorative chair. I just like the inherent absurdity of so much skill and craft going into something for rich people to put their asses on.
Next up was a display about the industry that put Omaha on the map: Cattle. It’s a powerful testament to how integral the cattle industry was to the city seeing photographs of the livestock exchange building circa 1930 and seeing just how much it dwarfs every other building in the city. At one point ranching and meatpacking combined, employed over half the city and Omaha was second only to Chicago as the largest center for beef processing in the entire country. The most surprising thing I learned here though was that in modern days the industry that has since replaced cattle as the largest economic driving force for the state is fiber optics. It wasn’t the most obvious jump from beef, but guess something about the city’s central location in the country makes it an ideal nexus for the criss-crossing fiber optic networks that supply information coast to coast.
Up next was a sweet tribute to John Latenser Sr., one of the most influential architects in Omaha, designing over 20 public schools, the courthouse, and several large business headquarters. It’s crazy to think that one man can play such a pivotal role in defining the look of an entire city, but with a couple prominent examples of his handiwork you can really see how he earned his keep.
The next gallery was an interesting one as it encompassed the personal collection of one local real estate named Byron Reed, who during the late 19th century just started collecting ancient coins, manuscripts, and military memorabilia eventually resulting in the veritable treasure trove that was ultimately bequeathed to the museum. The bulk of the collection was Byron’s prized rare coins, some which dated all the way back to 525 B.C. While he had coins from all over the world, the thing that impressed me the most was just how many different variations of American coinage there were before we decided on our current standard set. Whereas nowadays coins are often not given much thought, some of these historical variants were real pieces of art more than just currency.
The rooms housing the collection were meant to emulate Byron’s actual study, and included some beautiful art glass and an impressively study looking safe.
Included in this fascinating real estate agent’s collection was a handful of manuscripts including original handwritten works by Washington Irving and a scientific essay that really cracked me up entitled “The Moon Hoax” which was written as a response to an article that was actually printed in a newspaper in 1850 claiming that the author had discovered a race of people living on the moon. The world is a weird place.
Lastly, Byron had a sizable collection of military medals and handguns from the Civil and Revolutionary Wars. The guns didn’t do much for me, but I did like seeing all the different medal designs even if it’s kinda weird to collect something that other people probably had to earn under much more dire circumstances.
After Byron’s collection, there was an incredible scale model of the luxurious “White City”, a massive suite of temporary buildings built to stay up for just one summer in 1898 to host The Trans-Mississippi and Internation Expo and really dazzle visitors. The Expo hosted more than a dozen different exhibitions meant to show off the current development of the West and possibilities yet to come, though a not insignificant factor for its existence was to simply lure in as many tourists to Omaha as possible. As stunning as it must have been, the buildings were never intended to be permanent and that fall they were taken down with only photographs and models left to commemorate their former glory. It’s just bananas that something like this could just come and go out of existence in under six months.
The next couple galleries were focused on the Native Americans who first inhabited the city. Highlights of these displays included: a more detailed portrait of the incredible life of Standing Bear who was leader in the Ponca tribe who had to fight against abusively unfair federal treaties eventually suing the Federal Government and winning setting the crucial civil rights precedent that Indians were people under US Law (which is disgusting that it needed proving at all); a full scale replica of an Omaha tribe Earth Lodge; and a display about the Indian Congress of 1898 which saw over 600 Native Americans from over 35 tribes congregating in Omaha to teach people visiting the Trans-Mississippi and Internation Expo about their various cultures and traditions. The noble intentions of the congress were unsurprisingly undermined by capitalism as visitors really just wanted to watch battle re-enactments and see war dances. It’s gross that people didn’t really try to actually learn anything, but given how deplorable conditions on most reservations were I’m sure all the Indians involved were laughing all the way to the bank getting housing, food, and money just to make shit up for dumb white people.
Next up was some more full scale replicas of various period houses from the turn of the century ranging from blue collar “worker’s cottages” to a Tudor Revival mansion from some of the city’s more prosperous residents.
Leaving the houses, there were more historic vehicles, including a settler’s wagon, a Western Union Mail coach, and even a vintage filling station from once cars started to need gas.
To commemorate, the city’s famous St. Cecilia’s Cathedral, one of the ten largest cathedrals in the country the museum featured a collection of stunning photos as well as some of the bellows from the original pipe organ.
Other miscellaneous highlights included: the story of the first party of white settlers to arrive in Omaha which comprised of just three men in a leaky rowboat (hardly an auspicious start); a doctor’s bag accompanied by the factoid that back on the frontier just anyone could call themselves a doctor as long as they could afford a bag and had the confidence to convince people they knew what they were doing (utterly terrifying); some delightful vintage beer cans and bottles celebrating the German and Czech heritage of many of the first Nebraskans; and a poster from a Mardi Gras style festival detailing all the various floats with the craziest part being that it was hosted by a group called the Knights of Ak-sar-ben, which was wildly close to the wizarding prison from Harry Potter.
Moving on to more special exhibitions, the first was a really excellent showcase of various art by local female artists displaying skill across a variety of style and mediums. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to record any of the artists’ names, but my favorites were a remarkable pen and ink portrait of Frida Kahlo, an insanely intricate series of portraits and floral designs cut into paper, and a wildly surreal black and white photo of a house that had just collapsed.
The next exhibit was about WWII through the lens of looking at important women and people of color from the city and various contributions they made. My phone died while I was in this one (you’ve seen how many photos I was taking) so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would like, but I did get to capture two pretty incredible stories. These included Aberta Holt who was one of only 479 African-American women who were able to serve in the U.S Army Nurse Corps due to a racist quota system and then went on to serve as part of the first staff at the very first Black-owned hospital in the nation, and Kimi Takechi, the daughter of Japanese immigrants, who didn’t serve directly in the war but worked for until her 102 birthday owning and operating a business with her husband, aiding her community, and founding the Omaha Sister Cities Association with Shizuoka, Japan fostering strong US relations at home and abroad immediately after Pearl Harbor and for the next 70 years after.
The last exhibit, which I didn’t get pictures of, was a fun and silly interactive exhibit called American Adventure 1607 where you take the role of one of the first European settlers in the states and are faced with a series of choices (i.e. where do you settle, what crops do you plant, etc.) to see if you have what it takes to survive. It was definitely geared towards younger visitors, because there’s no way I actually should have survived but if I had been a kid I would have eaten it up. Plus now I have a sticker saying I’d be a champion Pilgrim.
At this point, I was long long overdue for a coffee so I made my way to the trendy Archetype Coffee. They had a stylish brick interior and a mighty fine cold brew, so it was just what I needed. The fact that across the street there was a restaurant just called Meatball was just icing on top.
For dinner, I had a hankering for pizza so I went to a local favorite spot called Orsi’s Italian Bakery, an unassuming throw-back Italian restaurant specializing in fresh pizza, pastries, and deli meats since 1919. It was no frills, but damn if they didn’t just make one of the most beautiful looking, and more importantly tasting, pizzas I’ve ever seen.
The night’s open mic was at a fun bar called the Barley Street Tavern. They do a lot of music as well as comedy so I liked that they had a real nice stage separate from the main bar area so it felt like a real show even if it was just a mic.
This mic was pretty uniformly strong, but I think my favorite of the night was a guy named Alex Preston who just had really tight material like “My boss told me if you're at the end of your rope tie a knot. I don't know if he knows my job makes me want to die but he shouldn't be the one telling me to do it. That's bad management”
Other Highlights:
Bill Queen- I used to put my initials in at the arcade BJQ so the kids started calling me the blow job queen
Sean Flaherty- I may be too gentle for pro wrestling.. but I could be your man of a thousand holds
Jacob Wilson- I don't usually 9/11 jokes because they fall flat. At my serving job everyone either has or knows someone with a dui
Rome Daily- I’m too light skinned for jail. I'd just show up and start asking everyone about brunch.
Andrew Morton- When I was arrested they gave me two sets of handcuffs which I think was a fat thing
My own set went pretty well, and I guess I made an impression on a sweet couple who, in a wild coincidence, were actually from MA visiting old military friends in Omaha on vacation and they just caught the mic on a whim. They were super nice and we ended up just chatting outside of the bar for a good hour or so. It was a real nice way to end the night on a high note.
Favorite Random Sightings: A van with the slogan “When things get icky call Ricky” on the side; a wine shop called Corky’s; a pet store called Long Dog Fat Cat (just incredible); a restaurant called Doozy’s; Almost Music Records; and a place called Joe Banana’s Lounge (sounds like my kinda spot)
Regional Observations: Omaha feels much more like a big city than Lincoln, which I found out today is because Lincoln has a city ordinance that no building can be taller than the Capitol building so that puts a damper on things like skyskrapers.
Albums Listened To: We Shall Overcome EP by Bernie Sanders (an EP of protest songs talk-sung by Bernie Sanders in the 80s in collaboration with local Burlington musicians); We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions by Bruce Springsteen (really jaunty covers of Pete Seeger songs by the Boss)
Joke of the Day:
Teacher: Clyde, your composition about “My dog” is exactly like your brothers. Did you copy this?
Clyde: No sir. It’s the same dog.
Songs of the Day:
This is freaking wild
Do you think he went out of his way to find a Banjo player who looks like Little Steven?