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Commerce in Context Exhibit Opens

The exhibit 'Commerce in Context: Trade, Development and Media in an Era of Change', runs through February 4, 2026, on the  first floor of Criss Library.  

  • published: 2025/09/15
  • contact: Lori Schwartz - Archives and Special Collections
  • email: lschwartz@unomaha.edu

Commerce in Context is the latest exhibit from the U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel Archives in Archives and Special Collections. It highlights commerce records related to trade, media/communications, and development/business from 1997 to 2008 when Hagel represented Nebraska in the U.S. Senate. As senator, Hagel helped set law and policy related to commerce. He chaired the Foreign Relations International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee as well as the Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance and Securities subcommittees.

The documents are a tiny portion of the trade, media/communications, and development/ business records in the Hagel Archives. There’s so much more of them, and other commerce topics, to explore! Other topics include anti-trust and mergers, the Census, consumer protection, Enron, intellectual property, sports, and trucking. To access this material, see the collection description and folder list, or visit Archives & Special Collections on the first floor of Criss Library.

All documents in the exhibit are part of the Hagel Archives, along with a bag cell phone circa 1991 which illustrates Hagel’s leadership in the burgeoning cell phone industry in the 1980s. The bag phone and other phones in the exhibit are a nod to the changes in the phone industry over the past many decades. On loan from Criss Library employees are a vintage Mickey Mouse phone, an early iPhone, and candlestick, wall, flip, and slide phones. The exhibit was curated by Hagel and Technical Services Archivist Lori Schwartz with assistance from Quinn Constantino, a communications studies major and student assistant in Archives and Special Collections.

Records Available for Research  

The Hagel Archives are used for research, instruction, exhibits, and general interest. They cover legislative issues and topics of local, national and international prominence that arose from 1997 to 2009, including the Bill Clinton impeachment in 1998-1999, a contested presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economic downtown of 2007-2009, and disaster and drought assistance for rural areas.

Visitors may use the Hagel Archives in Archives and Special Collections, Monday-Friday 9am – 5pm, and view selected material online. Given this collection’s size, we recommend users contact archivists in advance for help in selecting material. However, we welcome people to stop in, ask about, and use the records at any time. Information is available at U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel Archives.