It was a day that marked the passage of history.
On a Friday morning last fall, archival collections specialist Savanna Falter came to the third floor of the UNMC College of Nursing building in Omaha to shepherd the collection of nursing archives to its new home within UNMC.
For years, Audrey Nelson, PhD, an associate professor of nursing, kept the lamp lit for collecting, keeping and displaying the college’s historical record.
With items dating to 1917, the nursing college’s extensive historical records – from the most routine paperwork to nurse uniforms that bore witness to history – have long been held by the college itself. A modest third-floor space housed the UNMC College of Nursing and Alumni History Museum.
With an eye to the future of the history, the UNMC College of Nursing and McGoogan Health Sciences Library agreed to shift responsibility for the collection.
Nursing history has passed to new hands.
As movers ferried boxes and containers across and under 42nd Street to Wittson Hall, Falter stepped in to carry forward the legacy for Dr. Nelson, who passed away just three days after the move. The McGoogan Library has hired Falter with the responsibility of bringing the collection to its new home and preparing the historical record for its next era.
“It’s a great collection,” Falter said. “I’m really excited to process it.”
In 2005, the UNMC College of Nursing and Alumni History Museum was founded on the third floor of the college’s building in Omaha. At right, a mover pushes a moving cart of archival boxes along 42nd Street toward the McGoogan Library. Below, the nursing uniforms and textiles were kept well and will be available for future displays.
Nursing Dean Lepaine Sharp-McHenry, DNP, said the transition has had an emotional weight. But she said she believes the college’s dedication to the future of the nursing profession is embodied in the collection.
“Knowing your history is important, because it shapes and forms who you are and how you’re going to tackle the future,” Dr. Sharp-McHenry said.
“The ability to have had that collection here in the college of nursing, and now to know that that has been curated and is being stored and will be displayed to continue to honor the work of those that have gone before us, I think, is a testament to our commitment to continue the ongoing living history.”
-Nursing Dean Lepaine Sharp-McHenry, DNP
Nelson was the historian for the UNMC College of Nursing and museum coordinator, as part of her dedicated 50-year career in nursing education.
Two of her longtime colleagues, Mary Petersen, a recently retired research nurse coordinator for the UNMC Division of Infectious Diseases, and Missy Ofe Fleck, PhD, an assistant professor in the UNMC College of Nursing-Omaha Division, said Dr. Nelson took on the role of historian without being prompted.
In 2005, the UNMC College of Nursing and Alumni History Museum was founded at the college’s building in Omaha, thanks largely to Dr. Nelson’s efforts.
“She was one of those people who truly understood and believed that historical data should be collected,” Petersen said. “And she did it – she did it without being prompted.”
Dr. Ofe Fleck said, “She was such a perfect fit for the museum exhibits. She was going to honor it like it should be honored. She was going to respect the integrity of not only the artifacts, but the history it’s associated with.”
What’s next
Both Dean Glenn and Dean Sharp-McHenry are excited about what can become of the nursing collection out of the transition.
For the library’s part, it offers better environmental conditions for the materials and improved access for visitors and researchers, Dean Glenn said. The library can digitize the documents – and create new exhibits that will hold a higher profile for the UNMC community. Dean Glenn sees the library offering new capacity for research, preservation and stewardship for growth.
Dr. Sharp-McHenry said she loves the potential to highlight all five of UNMC’s nursing divisions – at each location across the state. The college’s work in collecting history also continues, she said, even if the primary responsibility for the collection has shifted. “Just because it’s not present in this building doesn’t mean it’s no longer important.”
If all goes according to plan, a new nursing exhibit could debut in the Wigton Heritage Center later this year.
While the college cherished its in-house museum, several issues spurred the move.
McGoogan Library Dean Emily Glenn said the library had been looking for an opportunity to provide the college with the same service it provides to other college’s collections.
By 2020, the library opened its new, renovated space, and in 2021, the Wigton Heritage Center debuted as a featured location for UNMC’s history. Not long after, new digital kiosks opened in UNMC college buildings, all while the college of nursing continued expanding across the state.
Dr. Sharp-McHenry and Dean Glenn both became deans in 2023, and nursing leadership was open to the idea.
Said Dr. Sharp-McHenry, “That took a lot of conversation and thinking about: How do we make that transition? How do we preserve the history? How do we honor the work and the dedication of Dr. Nelson?”
Dean Glenn said the partnership ensures the collection will be “honored, safeguarded, curated and available for future research and exhibitions.”
“We are excited for the opportunities for closer relationships with college of nursing faculty, staff, students and alumni interested in college history,” she said.
The McGoogan Library has been undertaking an extensive planning effort, even partnering with Dr. Nelson in the time they had. Now, Falter is continuing the archival work.
Falter is logging everything – the boxes and papers and books and textiles – and categorizing it all for future storage.
She’s finding themes like: Life as a nursing student through different points in history, as told through pictures and memorabilia. And: The nursing profession and nursing education in World War II.
Said Falter, “I feel like I have been given a great opportunity to make a difference.”
On moving day, the college produced one more archival record.
On Sept. 26, 2025, Dr. Sharp-McHenry signed a deed – a university archives transfer form – to transfer the collection of the College of Nursing and Alumni Museum to the McGoogan Health Sciences Library’s Robert S. Wigton Department of Special Collections and Archives.
Now, the college of nursing history is in new hands.
At left are nursing students’ photos from the University of Nebraska School of Nursing Class of 1952. At right are nightingale lamps that had been given to nursing students, who later donated them to the UNMC College of Nursing archives.
At left is a nurse bag with a barely legible “UNMC CON” embossed on it. At right, Savannah Falter inspects the items found in a nursing bag.
