About 40 years ago, Bryan Health looked differently than it does today.
The building has changed physically by adding expansions that now cover previous exterior walls of the hospital. Its name has changed, going from Bryan Memorial Hospital to Bryan East Campus, after the hospital acquired Lincoln General Hospital — which would become Bryan West Campus — in 1997.
Tom Henning, who was a member of the board of trustees when a time capsule was sealed and placed in the walls of Bryan Memorial in 1987, said during his time on the board the hospital bought its first MRI machine and did its first heart transplant.
“That was also controversial, but we were able to do that. Do the first heart transplant,” Henning said. “Bryan has had a history of innovation during their whole time.”
Bryan Health retrieved that time capsule Tuesday from a wall near the entrance of Bryan East Campus that had been placed there on June 5, 1987. At one point that wall had been on the outside of the building, but expansions brought the time capsule inside.
On that day in 1987, Bryan Memorial Hospital packed a blue canister with items representing 60 years of service at the hospital and sealed it, with the hope of opening it in 2026.
Nearly 40 years later, the hospital opened the time capsule a bit ahead of schedule as part of its extended 100-year celebration. Harold Lyon, who helped seal the capsule in 1987, and a team of maintenance workers extracted the container from a wall near the main entrance of the hospital and wheeled it to the William Jennings Bryan house next to the hospital.
After difficulty opening the sealed box, the team cut through the container to find a “Fun Run” T-shirt, a brick that dated back to 1926 and stacks of documents and photographs detailing how the hospital used to operate.
Also included was a pink smock, a nurse’s hat and restraining straps used in the psychiatric unit.
Other items discovered included menus, patient charges and salaries that showed how prices have changed over the past 40 years. Zach Witt, a member of a young professionals organization at the hospital, and Katie Speer, a clinical educator, read off prices from menus and receipts.
A cup of soup from the hospital’s cafeteria used to cost $0.51, for example. A taco was $1.08. Meanwhile, one particular hospital visit cost $128.
A new employee at the hospital with little experience would have made $4.12 per hour. Some employees with over 10 years of experience made $16.50 per hour. Studying at medical school cost about $615 per term.
“It’s fun to look back and hear about what was innovative back then, like the MRI, which today we take for granted,” Speer said. “We send a patient down to the MRI as if it’s like nothing.”
Dr. Gene Stohs, a retired obstetrician-gynecologist who worked at the hospital, said a lot has changed. When he started in Lincoln in 1979, he said there weren’t epidurals and fathers weren’t allowed in the delivery room. Stohs also said doctors at the hospitals were all in private practice as opposed to working directly for the hospital.
Bryan has been consistent in taking care of their patients and staff, he said.
“The local control has always been important,” Stohs said. “They’ve always had great administrative leadership that continues to this day. Lincoln was a very, very wonderful place to practice, and still is.”
Cracking open the time capsule was part of a larger celebration for Bryan Health’s centennial, which includes a series of events. Some of the celebration involves Bryan Young Professionals performing 100 acts of kindness and tours of William Jennings Bryan’s home at Bryan East Campus.
The hospital system plans to continue the tradition and place a second time capsule in May 2026. The items for the capsule will be gathered by the young professionals group over the course of the next eight months. The contents of this time capsule will be digitized.
Witt is one of the members of the young professionals group responsible for creating a new time capsule. The group was waiting to see what was included in this time capsule before creating one for the next 50 years.
Placing that time capsule will officially end Bryan Health’s centennial celebration. It’s set to be open for the hospital system’s 150th anniversary in 2076.
“Ultimately, we’re hoping to catalog everything from this previous time capsule to include in the next one, so that history just continues to build on itself,” Witt said.
Reach the writer at nfranklin@journalstar.com or 402-473-7391.
On Twitter @NealHFranklin
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