WHAT: Brown Bag Lecture Series
HOSTED BY: UNK Department of History and G.W. Frank Museum
TITLE: “They held the laboring oars”: The Frank Family’s Civil War
TOPIC: The Franks were Kearney’s first family in the 1880s and 1890s. Their sandstone mansion remains a prominent feature of UNK’s campus and reflects their dreams for Kearney’s prosperous future. Before moving to Nebraska, the Franks were successful New York bankers and merchants. They were also active abolitionists on the Underground Railroad. Augustus Frank was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and ally in the House of Representatives. He led the effort to pass the 13th Amendment, which ended slavery. This talk will follow the Frank family through the Civil War and highlight their fight for the abolition of slavery.
PRESENTER: Nathan Tye is the associate professor of Nebraska and American West history at UNK, where he’s taught since 2019. He received his doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his research focuses on the lives of migrant laborers, better known as hobos, and their efforts to survive on society’s margins. Tye serves on the boards of several local community museums and cultural organizations, and his research is published in Nebraska History, Annals of Iowa and Willa Cather Review. He also appeared on NBC’s celebrity genealogy program “Who Do You Think You Are?”
TIME: Noon
DATE: Wednesday, Oct. 8
PLACE: Kearney Public Library, 2020 First Ave.
VIDEO: Available on the Kearney Public Library YouTube channel
CONTACT: Nathan Tye, associate history professor, 308.865.8860, tyen@unk.edu