The History Harvest is an open, digital archive of historical artifacts gathered from communities across the United States. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of History partners with institutions and individuals within highlighted communities to collect, preserve, and share their rich histories. Advanced undergraduates lead the History Harvest project and curate and digitize these artifacts and stories. We believe that our collective history is more diverse and multi-faceted than most people give credit for and that most of this history is not found in archives, historical societies, museums or libraries, but rather in the stories that ordinary people have to tell from their own experience and in the things - the objects and artifacts - that people keep and collect to tell the story of their lives. The History Harvest, then, is an invitation to local people to share their historical artifacts, and their stories, for inclusion in a unique digital archive of what we are calling the people’s history.

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"Teddy and the Bear" Mechanical Coin Bank

Charles Mellon gave this mechanical coin bank to the Otoe County museum so that generations of children could continue to enjoy a hundred-year-old…

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Frank Oddo in the Army

This photo is of Frank Oddo, an Italian immigrant from Carlentini, Italy. Oddo became a U.S. citizen in 1934 at the age of 23. According to his…see more

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