Omaha Central High School Archives

Purpose of the Project

The prime reason for digitizing The Register collection was preservation. We were in danger of losing them. They are an irreplaceable record of a remarkable institution and the effect it worked on generations of students. Many of the issues are one of a kind. Many were also printed on paper that was disintegrating before our eyes and in our hands, as well as in the hands of researchers also utilizing them.

Every bit as important as preservation was the great search tool offered by OCR (Optical Character Recognition) which promises a digital index to any subject we can imagine. Now researchers, student or otherwise, can search any word or name lodged in the 15,000 pages -- without touching them.

Today original copies are preserved in acid-free archival boxes and stored in new locked steel cabinets. They will be housed indefinitely at the school.

"Preserving the Past for the Future"

Leading the effort were Dr. Jim Wigton '66, Barry Combs '50 and the CHS Alumni Association's Historical Committee. Scanning was under the direction of Curt Reiter and his Omaha company, Microfilm Imaging Systems...

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The Register Collection

The school to become Central welcomed its first students in November, 1859 and issued its first newspaper the following spring. Omaha was five years old. The handwritten paper took the name, The Free School Advocate...

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