The Nebraska Federal Writers’ Project: Remembering Writers of the 1930s, Part 1A - Rudolph Umland

Umland oversaw research, writing and editing for the Project’s most significant publications, including its folklore collections and the 1939 Nebraska: A Guide to the Cornhusker State, Nebraska’s contribution to the famed WPA American Guide Series. He socialized with, befriended or worked with many Nebraska writers, including Lowry Wimberly, Mari Sandoz, Weldon Kees, and Loren Eiseley. Umland’s connections, curiosity, intellectual acumen, and sense of humor made him an insightful and entertaining observer of the world around him.

Rudolph Umland’s writing, correspondence, and scrapbooks offer revealing portraits of life in Depression era Nebraska and a uniquely well-documented insider’s view of the local literary community and the Nebraska Federal Writers’ Project. His observations help us appreciate the surprising influence of Nebraska writers in shaping the national effort to better understand and document America’s complex cultural heritage, an effort that emerged in response to the crisis of the Great Depression.

Part I of this web exhibit will trace Rudolph Umland’s early life, his education, travels as a hobo, and literary efforts up to his finding employment with the Nebraska Federal Writers’ Project. By getting to know Rudolph Umland, we can better appreciate him as an observer of other writers, of historical events, and the remarkable depression era Federal Writers’ Project.

Part II of the exhibit looks at the Nebraska Federal Writers’ Project, its national origins, its evolution in the remarkable atmosphere of 1930s Lincoln, Nebraska; and its writers, goals and achievements.

Part III of the exhibit includes documents created by the Nebraska Federal Writers’ Project that reflect its local character, its innovations, and themes that joined it to a broader effort to redefine American identity in difficult times. This part of the exhibit also includes study questions, recommendations for further reading, reference notes and bibliography.

The exhibit is based on Rudolph Umland’s 15 volume Scrapbook and correspondence which he donated to The Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors at Lincoln City Libraries in 1989 and the many essays and articles he published about local history and life in Lincoln and at the University of Nebraska in the 1920s and 1930s.