October is German-American Heritage Month, and there could not be a better time to explore ARB’s German-Americana collection. The German-Americana Collection is one of the nation’s largest collections pertaining to German-American history, literature and culture, and is located in the Archives and Rare Books Library in Blegen Library. In 1935, the University of Cincinnati acquired the seed collection for what is today’s German-Americana collection with the library of H.H. Fick. Fick, a German immigrant and a former teacher with the Cincinnati Public Schools, spent his final years collecting books and pamphlets on German-American history and culture. The donation also contained Fick’s own writings and autobiography. Continue reading
Tag Archives: German-Americana
Updated Finding Aids Lists on ARB's website
By Suzanne Maggard
Did you know that the Archives and Rare Books Library holds thousands of linear feet of archival material? ARB has material relating to Urban Studies, German-Americana, University Archives and local government records including things like UC Board of Trustees minutes, wills for Hamilton County, Ohio, photographs of Cincinnati’s never completed subway, theater programs, labor newspapers, sheet music and much, much more. We are constantly in the process of organizing these materials and creating finding aids to help you locate them. We’ve recently updated the finding aids lists on our website to show you even more of what we have. We’ve also added links to our finding aids available through the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository. Take a look and see if there is anything that interests you. For more information, call the Archives and Rare Books Library at 513-556-1959 or send an email to archives@ucmail.uc.edu.
New Accession in the German Americana Collection
By Lauren Fink
A new collection containing materials of the Swiss Benevolent Association of Cincinnati, Ohio has just been processed in the Archives and Rare Books Library and a finding aid is now accessible at http://rave.ohiolink.edu/archives/ead/OhCiUAR0270. This Cincinnati-area organization was founded in 1871, with the objective of bringing Swiss citizens together to cultivate traditions and provide support, and remains active today. From its inception, the association has not only organized social events, but has also provided assistance (i.e. funeral costs, welfare services, and scholarships) for members and German-Swiss related charities. This collection, of a primarily German-speaking group, adds a new dimension to the UC Libraries’ other holdings in German Americana. Continue reading
New German-Americana at ARB: The Robert E. Cazden Collection
Currently in process at the Archives and Rare Books Library are the papers of Robert E. Cazden, Professor Emeritus of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky. Cazden was a scholar of printing, publishing, and the German-American book trade, and his papers focus largely on the research he conducted for his books including German Exile Literature in America 1933-1950: A History of the Free German Press and Book Trade (1970) and Social History of the German Book Trade in America to the Civil War (1984). Continue reading
McMicken Will Notice Found in Cincinnati German Newspaper
Charles McMicken
This past Tuesday when Professor Richard Schade was examining early Cincinnati German newspapers in the Archives & Rare Books Library, he came across an interesting item: a notice about Charles McMicken’s will in the April 1858 issue of Protestantische Zeitblatter. Considered the founder of the University of Cincinnati, McMicken died of pneumonia on March 30, 1858. His will stipulated a bequest to the City of Cincinnati to found a university, and after several fits and starts, UC was officially established in 1870. Continue reading
New German American Online Exhibit on the ARB Web Page
The Archives & Rare Books Library has added a new exhibit to its German Americana Collection and Urban Studies Collection web pages. Gemutlikeit, Schnitzelbank, and Kitsch: German American Caricature in Vintage Postcards explores the creation and perpetuation of German American ethnic stereotypes through cartoon images found on popular postcards in the 20th century. More than fifty cards illustrating a public view of a major ethnic group are included in the exhibit. Continue reading
St. John's Unitarian Church Records: Searching the History of one of Cincinnati's Oldest Churches
The Confirmation class of 1903 with Rev. H.G. Eisenlohr
The Archives and Rare Books Library holds the records of a few local churches, including St. John’s Unitarian Church, one of Cincinnati’s oldest houses of worship. This church’s rich history began in 1814 when Joseph Zaeslin (also spelled Zaeslein), a Moravian minister, organized a church for German immigrants in Cincinnati under the name The German Evangelical and Reformed Church. The history of this church is important to both Cincinnati’s religious history and to the history of Cincinnati’s German-American community. Continue reading
Cazden German-Americana Collection Now Catalogued and Onsite
In 2002, the University of Cincinnati Libraries was bequeathed an outstanding collection of books from the personal library of Robert E. Cazden, professor emeritus of library science at the University of Kentucky and a noted scholar on German-American history and literature. The portion of these materials that pertain to German-American studies – more than 1400 volumes – has now been fully catalogued and added to the German-Americana Collection in the Archives & Rare Books Library at the University of Cincinnati. This acquisition maintains the position of the German-Americana Collection as one of the premier libraries on this subject in the world. Continue reading
First German Baptist Church Records Finding Aid Now Available
The Constitution of the Synzygus Verein of the First German Baptist Church, which appears to have been adopted prior to 1915.
The records of the First German Baptist Church or Deutsche Baptisten-Kirche of Cincinnati have been fully processed and a finding aid is now available on the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository. The collection holds various records for the church between 1880 and 1991 including church meeting minutes, financial records, and Sunday school attendance sheets. The material in the collection prior to the 1930s is primarily in German.
The records of the First German Baptist Church illustrate a small, but significant religious movement among Cincinnati Germans in the late nineteenth century. The First German Baptist Church was founded in Cincinnati in 1857, with the assistance of the Ninth Street Baptist Church, whose congregation saw the need for a Baptist missionary movement among German immigrants. Continue reading