Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre, Wymore, Nebraska

10/21/2026

Today is 60 years since the Aberfan disaster, when a colliery spoil tip collapsed killing 116 children and 28 adults, many in Pantglas Junior School.

Our thoughts are with the people of Wales today, and especially with those close to the tragedy.

Codie’s Aberfan. We remember Aberfan.

Image credit: Welsh Government

10/13/2026

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY:
LUNCH BOX LECTURE AT THE NEBRASKA HISTORY MUSEUM
Part-time director Robert Humphries and board president, Gwenith Closs-Colgrove will share the history of Welsh immigrants in Nebraska and discuss the work of the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project in Wymore.

📆 Tuesday, October 20
🕑12-1 pm
📍Nebraska History Museum
131 Centennial Mall N
Lincoln, NE 68508

10/12/2026

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, when we honor indigenous communities, including the Otoe-Missouria Tribe upon whose lands the Welsh and others settled beginning in the mid-1800s. Although the Otoe-Missouria, who call themselves Jiwere, had already ceded most of their land to the Federal Government in 1854, under pressure from the government the tribe agreed to sell their remaining land—the Big Blue Reservation—and move to Oklahoma in 1879. This land was then advertised and sold to settlers, including immigrants from Wales and other countries in Europe. Some of the original land certificates in our archives are noted “Otoe-Missouria”, indicating those sections had been part of the Big Blue Reservation. In addition to historical sites related to the Otoe-Missouria, Gage County is also home to part of the Chief Standing Bear Trail, commemorating the Ponca Trail of Tears. At the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre, we recognize the land upon which we stand as traditional Otoe-Missouria lands and recognize not only the history of indigenous people, but their continuing resilience.

Shown here are Sam Hudson, an Otoe man who lived in what became the Wymore area, was known to Welsh settlers and later lived in Oklahoma; a certificate for former Otoe-Missouria reservation land purchased by John E. Jones; and Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca.

10/11/2026

WELSH VOICES: "WITSH" WITH MARI ELLIS DUNNING
Free on Zoom
Sunday, October 18, 2026
1 PM CT/2 PM ET

Hosted by the Welsh Society of Western New England

Please join us on Zoom for our next free, virtual presentation in the Welsh Voices series. Award-winning author Mari Ellis Dunning will discuss her novel Witsh, a gothic tale set in 16th-century Wales.

To register, please visit https://www.welshwne.org/events/2026/witsh

09/25/2026

Dyma'r cylchlythyr mis Medi… - https://mailchi.mp/a453605120a5/the-september-newsletter

09/25/2026

Diolch yn fawr/Thank you so much to everyone who donated during the Big Give Gage at the beginning of September. We raised more than $10,000 for our museum expansion project.

09/22/2026

Earlier this month, at the North American Festival of Wales in Springfield, Massachusetts, the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre received a donation from the North American research group of Heddwch Nain/Our Grandmothers' Peace. The organization spent most of the last decade researching the Welsh Women's Peace Petition of 1923. The petition was signed by almost 400,000 women in Wales, and was addressed to the women of the United States to encourage their country to join the League of Nations. The petition was housed in the Smithsonian Institution before recently being returned or "rematriated" to Wales. The National Library of Wales has also digitized the petition allowing people today to find the signatures of their relatives. The donation from Heddwch Nain includes documents, awards and artifacts commemorating the petition, as well as a gift of remaining funds from the North American research group. We at the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre are grateful for the donation and honored to be the custodians of these items.
Shown left to right (Heddwch Nain unless noted): Susan Davies Sit, Gwenith Closs Colgrove (President, Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project), Robert Humphries (Part-time Director, Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project), Ann Griffith, Ellen Siuta, Dafydd Tudur (National Library of Wales), Annie Rodgers and Margaret West.

09/16/2026

Dydd Owain Glyndŵr Hapus i bawb! Appropriately enough, the Welsh Voices series begins again this Sunday with a virtual presentation about the man who led the most significant Welsh revolt against English rule in the Middle Ages.

Owain Glyndŵr and the Mortimers
Gareth Jones, Cymdeithas Owain Glyndŵr Society
Hosted by the Madog Center for Welsh Studies

Sunday, September 20th 2026, 2pm ET / 1pm CT / 12pm MT / 11am PT / 7pm Cymru/Wales, held on Zoom
Free but registration is required.

In June 1402, Owain Glyndŵr’s army defeated a large English force at the battle of Bryn Glas near Knighton; the English were led by Sir Edmund Mortimer, who was captured after the battle and then held for ransom by Glyndŵr.

This talk will describe the battle, then go on to explore Mortimer’s relationship with Glyndŵr - and particularly his daughter, Catrin.

For more details and to register, please visit:
https://www.rio.edu/campus-life/campus-facilities/madog-center-welsh-studies/welsh-voices

09/11/2026

There's still time to make a donation to our Big Give Gage campaign. Simply visit https://www.biggivegage.org/organization/WelshMuseum before midnight tonight, September 10. Your gift of any amount will help us complete our museum expansion project and share the history of Welsh people in North America.

The Mission of the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project and Archive for Welsh America is to discover, preserve, educate, interpret, and celebrate the history and contributions of Welsh pioneers and their descendants on the North American prairies; and to further public...

09/10/2026

THE BIG GIVE GAGE IS UNDERWAY!
DONATE TODAY ONLINE OR IN PERSON
Please help us raise $20K for our museum expansion.

Take a look at these exhibit sketches to get an idea of how we're going to tell the story of the Welsh in North America as it has never been told before!

Now that we have completed the foundation and footings, and have secured funding for the shell of our 2,200 square-foot expansion, we want to raise an additional $20K for drywall, lighting and finishing the exhibit space.
Big Give Gage officially runs from 12:00 am-11:59 pm today, Sept. 10.

DONATE ONLINE: Visit https://www.biggivegage.org/organization/WelshMuseum You can donate by credit card, bank account transfer, Google Pay and Apple Pay. Charges will be made on Sept. 10.
DONATE BY CHECK IN PERSON: You can donate at 5 locations in Gage County today, including the Wymore Heritage Inn (see link for locations). Checks must be made out to Gage County Foundation and the memo line must state GPWHP or Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project. The Gage County Foundation does not receive any percentage of the donation.