Celebrating 30 Years of the German-American Collection

Broadside from German-Americana Collection

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the German-Americana Collection at the University of Cincinnati. Established in 1974, and today totaling more than 10,000 items, the collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive holdings of materials relating to German-American history, literature, and culture.

Located in the Archives and Rare Books Department, items in the collection such as books, pamphlets, documents, journals, newspapers, manuscripts, and memorabilia document German settlement and life in America. While the emphasis of the material is on the Ohio Valley – Cincinnati was one of three major hubs of German settlement along with Milwaukee and St. Louis – the collection also includes a strong national perspective. “Although there are a number of German-Americana collections with a regional or religious focus, there are very few with a national focus on the German-American experience,” said Don Heinrich Tolzmann, curator of the German-Americana Collection. “The University of Cincinnati’s collection is clearly one of the largest, if not the largest, of its kind.”

Materials in the collection range in date from the 18th to the 21st century with new items added regularly. Highlights of the collection include:

• the title page of a Bible printed in 1776 by Christoph Saur of Germantown, PA. The oldest item in the collection, this Bible became known as the “Gun-wad Bible” because soldiers used the pages to stuff their muskets during the early days of the Revolutionary War.
• items from Dr. H.H. Fick (1849-1935). Fick, along with being a German emigrant and educator, edited an illustrated children’s journal Jung-Amerika (Young America) from 1901-1906. Each journal contains 14-16 pages of German prose, poetry, biographies, and brief historical essays.
• an 1857 letter by famous bridge builder John A. Roebling (Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati and the Brooklyn Bridge) in which he discusses the benefits of iron verses copper wire.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary, a Web site has been created exhibiting highlights of the collection’s holdings. Available at <www.archives.uc.edu/german/exhibits/index.html>, visitors to the site can view and learn about some of the rich materials available in the German-Americana Collection.

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