{"id":611,"date":"2025-01-17T09:29:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T15:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/?p=611"},"modified":"2025-01-17T09:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T15:44:14","slug":"retrofuturism-chronamparty-science-fiction-in-nebraskas-historic-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/2025\/retrofuturism-chronamparty-science-fiction-in-nebraskas-historic-newspapers\/","title":{"rendered":"RetroFuturism ChronAmParty: Science Fiction in Nebraska’s Historic Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of stringing together #ChronAmParty posts, featuring #CreepySantas or #FashionPlates, for this month’s #ChronAmParty we are trying a new format. Our theme is #RetroFuturism in honor of January’s National Science Fiction Day, celebrated annually on January 2.<\/p>\n

Nebraska’s newspapers occasionally featured serialized Science Fiction stories, such as The North Platte Weekly Tribune’s<\/em> publication of A Princess of Mars<\/em>, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s first novel, which had first been published in All-Story Magazine<\/em> in 1912. The Tribune ran the story starting on January 11, 1921<\/a> and continuing through April 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately for the purposes of this month’s #ChronAmParty (and, I argue, Nebraska readers of the past) most of the serialized fiction in our papers was not of the Sci-Fi variety, but more along the lines of Prudence of the Parsonage<\/em><\/a> by Ethel Hueston. Serialized in the Dakota County Herald<\/em> starting on January 11, 1917, it features “a small-town minister’s family and its struggle with poverty, with hard-headed — and fat-headed — church officers, with temptations of the flesh and spirit.”<\/p>\n

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But, never fear, writer H. G. Wells figures prominently in our papers, Including “Men of Mars and Other Things: What a Visit to Mars would Reveal — Perhaps?<\/a>” (The Loup City Northwestern<\/em>, May 7, 1908) and “Will the Spider Inherit Our Earth?<\/a>” (Omaha Daily Bee<\/em>, March 23, 1913) “Man Must Give Way to Some Other Creature, says H. G. Wells, the English Philosopher, and Maeterlinck, the Belgian, Suggests the Hideous Insects, ‘Born of a Demented Comet,’ as Man’s Successors.”<\/p>\n

More intriguing, perhaps, are the real-life inventions that seemed like Science Fiction at the time, such as the display of infant incubators first seen in Omaha at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition and then re-displayed a year later. (“A Live Exhibit. A Revival of Last Year’s Most Attractive Show.<\/a>” Omaha Daily Bee<\/em>, August 30, 1899) Today we take the use of incubators for granted, but in the 1890s and into the early 20th century, they were a sideshow act at Amusement Parks (such as Coney Island) and World’s Fairs (such as the Trans-Mississippi Exposition<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Exposition, it featured another amazing display, that of the “Santiago War Balloon<\/a>“, (Omaha Daily Bee<\/em>, September 23, 1898) which had been used in the Spanish American War that same summer! The Trans-Mississippi Exposition ran June 1 to November 1, 1898. The Spanish-American War was April 21 to December 10. Of course, all of this preceded the founding of the Fort Omaha Balloon School. (“U. S. Orders Fort Omaha Balloon School Enlarged<\/a>,” Omaha Daily Bee<\/em>, August 13, 1917)<\/p>\n

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And, although hot air balloons are quite real, they are (thankfully) not quite what H.G. Wells imagined. (The Last Gunpowder War?<\/a> Omaha Daily Bee<\/em>, October 11, 1914)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of stringing together #ChronAmParty posts, featuring #CreepySantas or #FashionPlates, for this month’s #ChronAmParty we are trying a new format. Our theme is #RetroFuturism in honor of January’s National Science Fiction Day, celebrated annually on January 2. Nebraska’s newspapers occasionally featured serialized Science Fiction stories, such as The North Platte Weekly Tribune’s publication of…<\/p>\n Read More<\/span> RetroFuturism ChronAmParty: Science Fiction in Nebraska’s Historic Newspapers<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-lweakly","post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-chronamparty","category-historic-nebraska-newspapers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdrhdev.unl.edu\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}