Exhibit Tour

Understand Cather's Time

This is a driving tour that includes the childhood home but also offers a deep dive into three permanent exhibits that put Willa Cather's life and writing in context: American Bittersweet at the National Willa Cather Center; All Aboard: West-Bound Trains in American Culture at the Burlington Depot; and Making a Place: A Long History of Red Cloud at the Farmers and Merchants Bank.

What are the most important events of Cather’s life? How did Red Cloud become the homesteading town that inspired six of Cather’s novels? Why is the rise of the railroad so central to understanding the history and culture of late 19th and early 20th century America? The exhibit tour provides guests with the opportunity to explore answers to these questions while a guide is on hand to supply additional information. Guests should have their own transportation and plan to follow a tour guide from site to site. Tours last approximately 90 minutes.

Note! Guests should have their own transportation and plan to follow a tour guide from site to site. Tours last approximately 90 minutes.

Book This Tour

Adults: $12.00
Seniors: $9.00
Students: (K - 12) - $6.00
Children: (5 & under) – Free

Willa Cather Childhood Home

245 N Cedar Street

At the newly restored Willa Cather Childhood Home, visitors will walk through rooms containing Cather family artifacts while learning about the Cather family's homesteading journey from Virginia; the domestic spaces in The Song of the Lark, "Old Mrs. Harris," and 'The Best Years" that were modeled after the house; and guides will provide a peek inside Cather's childhood bedroom that is still decorated with original wallpaper.

Burlington Depot

437 W Welsch Street

New to the restored Burlington Depot is All Aboard: West-Bound Trains in American Culture! When the railroad opened in Red Cloud in 1878, the fortunes of the town were forever changed. Our newest permanent exhibit features historical photographs, railway artifacts, and hands-on activities for young and old, all focused around railroad history, the literary legacy of the Burlington, and the railway as a vehicle for the settlement of the West.Cather uses the depot in many of her works, such as in an early scene in My Ántonia. The Depot also figures prominently in “The Sculptor’s Funeral.” This is Red Cloud’s third depot, built in 1897. Willa Cather would have used it when traveling to and from her hometown.

Farmers & Merchants Bank

338 N Webster Street

Making a Place: A Long History of Red Cloud is the permanent exhibit housed at the Farmers and Merchants Bank, the second stop on the exhibit tour. Here visitors can explore Willa Cather's novel A Lost Lady through topics that are both present and absent in Cather's fiction. The exhibit includes Pawnee culture; Silas and Lyra Garber—in life and as portrayed as Captain and Mrs. Forrester in A Lost Lady; town-making and homesteading; banking and the Panic of 1893; and early preservation efforts led by the National Willa Cather Center's founder, Mildred Bennett.

National Willa Cather Center

413 N Webster Street

This tour concludes back at the National Willa Cather Center, where guests have the opportunity to fully explore the life and legacy of one of America's most celebrated authors. The Center is the heart of the largest collection of nationally designated historic buildings and sites devoted to any American author. Your visit to the Center comes with the unique experience of an embrace from the small community where Willa Cather spent her formative years. She once said, "I was always being pulled back into Nebraska.” You will be, too. At the end of the tour, guests are invited to shop in our bookstore, walk through the art gallery, or spend time in our permanent exhibit, American Bittersweet: The Life and Writing of Willa Cather.