New Englanders George and Sarah Joslyn came to Omaha in 1880. Married in 1874, the couple first moved to Montreal and later to Des Moines, Iowa, where George took a job unloading freight cars for the Iowa Paper Company. The company’s main business was providing small-town Iowa newspapers with “ready-print,” a news sheet preprinted with special features and advertisements, which was then printed on the outside with local news. George quickly attained an office position in the firm, and when a branch office opened in Omaha, he was offered the position of manager. The expanded company was reorganized in 1881 as the Western Newspaper Union.

By 1890, George had acquired controlling interest in the company’s stock and began a vigorous expansion campaign. At the time of his death, the Western Newspaper Union, with George as its president and general manager, was the largest newspaper service organization in the world. It operated printing plants and publication offices in 32 cities, six exclusive plate foundries, the largest publication plant in the city of Chicago, 17 wholesale paper houses, and pulp and paper mills in northern Wisconsin.

The Joslyns loved their adopted city of Omaha and actively supported community projects and charities—child and animal welfare, nature preservation, higher education, the arts—toward which it is estimated they gave more than $7 million. When associates suggested he move his business headquarters East, George answered that his money had been “made in Omaha and it would be spent in Omaha.” The couple had a son, who died in infancy, and a foster daughter, Violet. They often opened their home, Lynhurst (dubbed Joslyn Castle by Omahans because of its grand, baronial style), to groups of underprivileged and orphaned children. The home was complete with a carriage house, horses, dogs, a bowling alley, billiards, and a music room (Joslyn Castle, 3902 Davenport, continues to welcome visitors). An extraordinary couple, the Joslyns contributed much to the early social, artistic, and intellectual life of Omaha.

George died in 1916 at the age of 68. In her later years, Sarah made arguably her most impactful gift—a free cultural center at the corner of 24th & Dodge in his memory. After completion of the Joslyn Memorial in 1931, she spent much time in the building’s reception room, now known as the Founder’s Room. It remained her place of retreat for the rest of her life. Sarah died on February 28, 1940; she was 88 years old.