GUEST: About 20 years ago, the house that we were redoing for an older gentleman had to be totally redone, and he traded me the painting for doing extra work on the house.
APPRAISER: What can you tell us about the artist?
GUEST: From what I've read, he was considered Nebraska's first art teacher.
APPRAISER: He actually was born in Illinois in 1853, and came to Lincoln around 1885. You feel this is most likely a Nebraska subject, correct?
GUEST: I think so, with the grass fire and the sod houses and things like that, it was something that was really used back then because there was a lack of trees.
APPRAISER: I would judge this was probably painted sometime around the turn of the century. The painting itself is really in nice condition. I would put this in the $3,500 range if it were to come up to sale in the national marketplace. And here, if it were to be for sale, I think, given the subject matter, it might even be worth more like $5,000 or $6,000.
GUEST: Wow, thanks. Tells you a lot about Nebraska and how we've changed, you know?
APPRAISER: Oh.
GUEST: We have trees now.
APPRAISER: Yes, that's right.
