Celebrate the Wonder of the Season at Omaha’s Durham Museum
Omaha’s Durham Museum is known for its interactive exhibitions and the current exhibition, “Hockey: Faster Than Ever,” is a fun, hands-on exhibit. In addition, the Durham has numerous other exhibits including a giant Holiday tree. You should check it out!
First, visit the holiday exhibits like the giant decorated Holiday tree in the expansive main hall. You and your family really can’t go wrong with a photo in front of the giant tree. It makes a gorgeous backdrop! My family and I try to take a photo there every year. Insider tip: You can often “swap photo-taking responsibilities with folks near you in line. Just ask! Midwesterners are generally a kind group! That way everyone in your family can be in the holiday photo. Don’t be shy. 😉
Just off the main hall is a small exhibit room with display cases of small Christmas trees decorated with ornaments of various ethnic groups that have settled in Omaha. It is a wonderful and interesting exhibit. I love seeing the way folks from other countries and ethnicities decorate their trees. A few photos are below.
There are three main temporary exhibit spaces on the first floor. In the first temporary exhibit area was a display of dresses entitled, “Woven with History: Timeless Textiles From the Ak-Sar-Ben Collection.” There were several displays of gorgeous gowns from different historical eras from the annual Ak-Sar-Ben coronation ball. The dresses and objects span from the 1910s to the 2010s. This exhibit is available until January 11, 2026. See photos below.
The main, featured temporary exhibit is called “Hockey: Faster Than Ever” and covers many aspects of the game of hockey from the players to techniques to statistics. While I have never been to a hockey game I still had fun trying out the exhibits and learning about the sport. Here is a funny story from the exhibit, experienced while I was going through the exhibit. This is taken from a Facebook post the day I went.
Photo (and Stupid Story) of the Day! Went to the Durham Museum today and saw their exhibit on hockey. I am not a hockey fan. I have never been to a game, but I figured I could learn some things. I was successful at making two of the 4 goals I tried with the curved stick in a practice area (who knew the sticks were curved? Yeah, I whiffed more than a few times…), I balanced on the balance apparatus with a large warning sign nearby with no problem, and then I came to this station below. It is similar to curling. The stick was long and fairly heavy, which surprised me. So the idea is that you take the long stick and cradle the large puck at the end and give it a big shove so the puck reaches the goal. Well, the first time it was no problem and I got the puck in the goal. Maybe I was feeling slightly overconfident (or more likely, I’m kind of a natural klutz), but the second time, when I gave the stick the big heave-ho, I pitched forward slightly and then tripped over the end of the exhibit by the start area. For a brief second I thought, “I’m going to end up flat on my face in this exhibit!” Gulp… But, after making kind of a racket and stumbling around a bit, I finally regained my balance. A lady in the next part of the exhibit smiled a big grin at me. So much for being anonymous and/or invisible. 🙄 Anyway, I was grateful not to exit the exhibit on a stretcher and, oh, I now know what a hat trick is! 🤣🤣🤣
And here are more photos from the exhibit, which runs until January 11, 2026.
In a small exhibit space adjacent to the hockey exhibit is a display devoted to Omaha’s hockey team, the Omaha Lancers. It was in this exhibit that I learned what a hat trick is hockey is. A photo from that exhibit is below. This exhibit is also available until January 11, 2026.
The Durham has many historical exhibits as well, but I will focus on them in a later post. However, no visit to the Durham is complete without visiting the gift shop and the old fashioned soda fountain for a delicious lunch or treat. I’ll wrap up this post with a few photos of the Durham main hall and my lunch at the soda fountain.
