Kearney Public Library, UNK-History Department and History Nebraska welcome you to the ongoing history brown bag lunch series Wednesday, November 13 from noon - 1:00 p.m. Dr. Nathan Tye will present “Confronting the ‘Annual Plague of Hobos’: The History of Transient Labor in Nebraska, 1870-1930”.
Hobos, tramps, and bums – men and women who hopped trains and lived on the road – were integral to Nebraska’s agricultural economy from the 1870s to 1930s. Hobos harvested wheat, shucked corn, laid steel rails, and fulfilled the state’s need for seasonal casual labor. Dr. Nathan Tye will share his insights into the maligned and romanticized lives of these figures and their larger place in Nebraska’s history.
Dr. Nathan Tye is an assistant professor of history at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he specializes in the history of Nebraska and the American West, and teaches courses on Nebraska, Midwestern, public and digital history. Tye received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has published on hobos in Nebraska and the Midwest, Kearney history, and the Catholic activist Dorothy Day.
This program is free and open to the public so bring your lunch and learn! This collaborative program is presented by UNK-History Department, History Nebraska, and the Kearney Public Library.