NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/791817
N ebraska's Capitol was designed to house the state government and also tell stories about Nebraska. Hartley Burr Alexander, a University of Nebraska professor, was asked to tell Nebraska's story, with the themes of these stories being nature, people and government. Artist Hildreth Meiere was asked to create mosaics, or pictures, made with little pieces of tile, in the floors and ceilings of the Capitol to tell Nebraska's stories. The story of nature and animal life in Nebraska begins in the rotunda floor. Some of the animals in the floor mosaics lived in the inland sea that covered Nebraska hundreds of millions of years ago. These animals include crinoids, a trilobite, an ammonite, and a plesiosaur. In addition to the sea creatures, there are early insects, amphibians and dinosaurs in the floor mosaics. Other prehistoric animals pictured in the rotunda floor are land mammals, rhinoceros, three-toed horses and mammoths. The theme of the Vestibule, or main entrance room of the Capitol, is "Gifts of Nature." In the ceiling mosaics, agricultural crops and domestic animals are shown. Around the outside of the ceiling, wild animals of Nebraska are pictured. The wild animals featured in the mosaics in the Vestibule ceiling include the grizzly bear, field mouse, badger, hawk, opossum, white-tailed deer, skunk, fox, duck, mink, pronghorn, brown squirrel, otter, prairie dog, jack rabbit, owl, elk, ground squirrel, coyote, buffalo, beaver, cougar, bald eagle, wolf, bobcat and raccoon. The East Legislative Chamber (Warner Chamber) has pictures of historic Native American life in Nebraska. Native people believed animals had special powers. In the colorful carved doors of the chamber, a native man and woman are shown standing on animals whose special power they wanted. The woman with a baby on her back stands on a turtle because turtles lay many eggs and the women wanted to have many babies to help the tribe grow big and strong. The man stands on an otter a symbol of good medicine, or good fortune, which helped the hunters find bison and food for the tribe. Inside the chamber, the ceiling mosaics feature animals along with the daily activities of the tribe. These animals symbolize four elements of nature: soil, water, magic/fire, and air. As you can see, there truly is a wild side to the Nebraska state capitol. On your next trip to Lincoln, come take a look! interesting notes for readers of all ages by Lindsay Rogers and Donna Schimonitz Wildlife in the Nebraska State Capitol By Roxanne Smith, Tourism Supervisor, Office of the Nebraska Capitol Commission junior journal junior journal junior journal Mourning cloak photo by Getty Images NATURE CALENDAR Mourning cloak butterflies can be seen flying around on warm days: Early March Wild turkey courtship: Mid-March through April Mountain short-horned lizards emerge from hibernation: Late April to early May Oak trees produce catkins: Late March through late April Answer: Cougar D. Schimonitz Wolf - In Vestibule Draw With Dots Follow the dots in numeric order to identify the animal artwork found in the vestibule of the Nebraska State Capitol. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 19 from NEBRASKAland‛s Trail Tales magazine for kids MARCH 2017 • NEBRASKAland 57