The Omaha Colored Commercial Club was formed in 1920 to aid African Americans in finding employment and learning which businesses to support. It was important for the community to know which businesses were black-owned or willing to hire employees…
Mr. Warren Taylor provided some homesteading documentation from his paternal grandfather, Russel Taylor. This is Russel Taylor's homestead application, approved for 160 acres of land near Cheyenne, Wyoming on May 20th, 1913. Wyoming had a large…
Russel Taylor wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, explaining his inability to build a house and make the proper improvements to his homestead land by the proper date, as required by law. Russel was a school teacher, as well as a farmer,…
A note from his grandaunt accompanies the folding cup brought in by Mr. Taylor. This is his great-grandmother’s folding cup that she used in the field while enslaved in Mississippi. This artifact would have been essential to his…
Mr. Taylor brought in this penny to the History Harvest to share with us, accompanied by a note from his grandaunt. This penny is a 'braided hair coronet'-style penny, dated 1840, and Mr. Taylor informed us that his great-great-grandmother held on to…
Mr. Taylor presents two artifacts from his maternal great-great-grandmother: a metal folding cup and a penny. Both items belonged to her during her time of enslavement in Mississippi, and were passed down to him from his great aunt, who also created…