During the early 20th century, Grand Island was a unique and diverse community. No one captured this better than Julius Leschinsky. As Grand Island's premier photographer from the 1880s to the 1930s, Leschinsky immortalized a time of great change and growth in American culture. Through the compelling images of the Lumbard-Leschinsky Studio Collection, witness how Grand Island grew from a railroad town to an economic and cultural hub in central Nebraska. Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer has selected some of Leschinsky's best work to share a rare and detailed look into nearly every facet of life in Grand Island from 1910 to 1918. Many of these remarkable images have never been published and have not been seen for nearly 100 years.
Since 1967, Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer has given visitors a glimpse of pioneer life. Described as a “crossroads in time,” Stuhr Museum preserves and portrays the inspiring story of the pioneer town builders who created the first communities in Nebraska. In 1980, Stuhr Museum received 28,000 glass-plate negatives as part of a donation from Leschinsky's heirs. High-resolution scans of the original plates have created images as sharp and crisp as the day Leschinsky captured them.