Hard Hats and Hidden Histories: Women Who Built Nebraska
WEBINAR REGISTRATION

Thank you for your interest in joining our webinar, "Hard Hats and Hidden Histories: Women Who Built Nebraska," presented by Rebecca Wallisch on Thursday, July 24, 2025. The webinar will run 10:00-11:30a.m., Arizona time.

1868 Omaha woman holding infant wutside Chief Gi-He-Gas's tipiChrisman Sisters Goheen settlement, Custer County, 1886Magafans Murals_Omaha_World_HeraldMiss Mary Longfellow at claim west of Broken Bow c. 1880s


Rebecca WallischThis webinar will discuss Post Oak Preservation's 2024-2025 statewide study of Nebraska's Women in the Building Trades, a National Park Service Underrepresented Communities grant project. This webinar explores the challenges and discoveries behind documenting the overlooked contributions of women - especially LGBTQ+, Indigenous, immigrant, non-White, rural, and working-class women - to Nebraska's built environment. From submitting a Multiple Property Documentation Form to drafting a National Register nomination for the Laura B. Wood/Alta Mae Ward Historic District, the project sheds light on how women shaped the state's architectural legacy - often outside the bounds of official records. The project faced a complex challenge: researching women's history in a field where records are scarce, biased, or missing altogether.

For public historians and preservation professionals, this project highlights the deep challenges of researching women's history: navigating archival silences, decoding gendered language in historic records, and addressing the systemic exclusion of women and their labor from the historical narrative. Learn how the research team developed inclusive methodologies to surface hidden stories and expand the framework for recognizing underrepresented voices in the built environment. Join us to learn how these histories were recovered, why they matter, and how this work can be expanded in the future.

Rebecca Wallisch
Rebecca Wallisch has extensive experience performing intensive and reconnaissance-level historical, architectural, and cultural resource management investigations. This includes conducting fieldwork, research, and surveys; identifying and documenting cultural resources; and developing historic contexts, National Register of Historic Places nominations, and HABS/HAER-level documentation. Rebecca has conducted dozens of historic resources surveys and authored numerous National Register nominations in California, Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Wyoming, and throughout Texas in rural, urban, and suburban environments.

To Post Oak Preservation, Rebecca brings a passion for historical research and telling the whole story of our shared cultural heritage.

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You are welcome to make a tax-deductible contribution in the amount of your choosing to support the Arizona Preservation Foundation. Your contribution will go towards funding the Foundation's public awareness and education initiatives to raise awareness about the importance of historic preservation, educate the public on the value of preserving our heritage, and engage communities in the safeguarding of our historic buildings, sites, and neighborhoods.
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QUESTIONS?
Please contact Connie Gutierrez at connie@mcsource.net.