Quilt Museum History
About the Collections
The Nebraska Literature and Cultural History collections at the Archives & Special Collections, UNL Libraries, provide an unparalleled opportunity to research the rich literary and cultural legacy of the land that is now known as Nebraska.
The collections illustrate the creative work of authors often inspired by an experience or a piece of history. Many of the authors in the collections served as faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln writing and shaping the publication of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Many Nebraska authors are represented in the literary magazine Prairie Schooner and are among the authors represented throughout the long publishing history of the University of Nebraska Press and Bison Books. The materials in the collections trace an authors’ works from initial ideas to manuscript drafts to publication, critical reception, and the enduring influence of Nebraska and the Great Plains - authors - society - environment - have on the creative imagination.
Significant Collections
Mari Sandoz
Mari Sandoz is known as one of the primary Nebraska authors who wrote about Nebraska, the Great Plains, and the experience and history of American Indians and Indigenous nations. The Sandoz Collection includes manuscripts, correspondence, documents, notes, and maps.
Learn more about the Sandoz Collections.
Hilda Raz
Hilda Raz is a poet whose career encompasses her 14 volumes of poetry and creative non-fiction work, her role as editor of the literary magazine Prairie Schooner, and her teaching as an Emerita Luschei Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).
Learn more about the Raz Collections.
Ted Kooser
Ted Kooser is a former United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and honor he held from 2004-2006. He produced over 25 volumes of poetry including Local Wonders, Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (2002), The Poetry Home Repair Manual (2005), and the Pulitzer Prize winning volume Delights & Shadows, a book of poems published by Cooper Canyon Press (2004).
Learn more about the Kooser Collections.
Willa Cather
Archives & Special Collections holds the largest collection of Willa Cather related materials in the world, with 14 collections of material related to Cather’s life, works, and scholarship. Many of the collections include photographs, first editions and inscribed copies of Cather’s novels, and other Cather family materials that support research and scholarship through distinctive and significant content.
More information is available about the Cather Collections.
Preserving A Legacy
Mari Sandoz’s Legacy
In 1966, Mari Sandoz identified the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as the preferred home for her legacy and deeded her manuscripts, correspondence, and personal library to UNL. In the intervening decades, UNL has built the world’s largest and most complete archival holdings by and about Sandoz and remains dedicated to preserving and providing access for researchers, students, and readers.
Learn more about Mari Sandoz and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's ongoing efforts to preserve Sandoz’s literary, historical, and cultural legacy.