I am so glad that you found this article. Did you ever get to meet your Grandfather? I wrote an additional article on his sculptures for our local area magazine. If you e-mail me at odysseythroughnebraska@gmail.com, I would be glad to send a link to you. I will hopefully be adding the link to this site at some point too!
Thank you for your encouraging words. My guess is that some of the people in charge must have felt that was a patriotic thing to do during the scrap metal drives of World War 2. I wonder if the sculptures had deteriorated a bit by then. I do think it is interesting that you can still see the basin part outside of the Lincoln Children's Zoo.
Thank you so much for sharing your part in Lincoln's history! The gates were a fun find for me. I definitely did not fully appreciate them until I uncovered some of the history. They add such a presence to the Memorial Stadium area.
Thank you so much for commenting. My understanding is that the Bryans took many of the original furnishings with them to Florida since they relocated there. I think one or two of the pieces is still in Fairview, but I need to take another tour to be reminded of which ones. That is so fascinating that you have one of the organs - what a treasure!
This is such a great question. My favorite author of Nebraska history is Bess Streeter Aldrich. Several of her books are set around Nebraska. Willa Cather also set three of her books in Nebraska. I would say that her books are a bit more stark. Stephanie Grace Whitson is another writer of Nebraska fiction that is my favorites. Her books do have more of a spiritual slant. I am actually doing a workshop on Nebraska literature next spring, so I hope to have even more titles to suggest.
