WHAT: Brown Bag Lecture Series
HOSTED BY: UNK Department of History
TITLE: “The Kearney Street Railway”
TOPIC: Kearney residents at the turn of the century crossed town swiftly aboard the trolleys of the Kearney Electric Company. First horse-drawn and later electrified, Kearney’s street railway brought a feeling of modernity and innovation to our booming country town. Economic depression, poor management and service problems doomed the endeavor. Yet, if you know where to look, hints at the street railway’s existence remain in town.
PRESENTER: Nathan Tye is an assistant professor of history at UNK. The Kearney native holds a bachelor’s degree from Creighton University and doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in Nebraska history, the history of the American West and Midwest, labor history, gender and sexuality history and digital and public history. Tye’s research documents the fascinating but misunderstood lives of hobos, tramps and other transient workers who traveled across the West and Midwest by hopping trains from the 1870s through 1930s.
TIME: Noon
DATE: Wednesday, Nov. 9
PLACE: Kearney Public Library, 2020 First Ave.
CONTACT: Nathan Tye, assistant history professor, 308.865.8860, tyen@unk.edu
Photos courtesy of G.W. Frank Museum of History and Culture
