The Germans in America

Relevant American Memory Presentations

• Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789

  Printed broadsides offering an account of America's struggle for nationhood. Contains some reflections of America's early concerns with Germany and the Germans.

• George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress 1741- 1799

  The holdings represent about 65,000 items among which are letters from George Washington to Philadelphia German Lutherans, April 27, 1789 and to German Reformed Church Officials, June 10, 1789.

• Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years

  Significant and interesting items from the hands of the prominent and the obscure, selected from the manuscript holdings of the Library of Congress. Contains Albert Einstein's handwritten draft report, in German, on theoretical physics, with an English transcription of same, 23 October, 1937.

• California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900

  More than 180 books about individual experiences in and on the way to California during and after the Gold Rush. Includes references to travelogues by German-language authors.

• The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920

  Multiformat collection of selected materials from the popular stage and allied arts. German accent and attitudes caricatured with broad humor.

• Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

  About 4,000 panoramic views of American main streets, landscapes, bathing beauties, disasters and other events. The collection also has images of buildings and vistas familiar to many German Americans such as Chicago, Illinois, in front of German Building, Jackson Park, Waterfront near German Building, Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois, Das Deutsche Haus, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Postal Telegraph Cable Co. on ground floor below German Bank, possibly Detroit, Michigan.

• Early Motion Pictures, 1897-1916

  Four groupings from the earliest period of the medium. Includes depictions of immigrants arriving and landing at Ellis lsland.

• California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties

  Multiformat ethnographic field collection that includes sound recordings, still photos, drawings and written documents from a variety of European ethnic and English- and Spanish-speaking communities in Northern California. Included is the song: My little German home across the sea.

• Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record, 1933 - Present

  Prints and photographs of achievements in architecture engineering, and design in the United States and its territories. Contains references to German-American structures depicted in the HABS/HAER collections of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

• Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955

  Photographs of buildings, interiors, and gardens of renowned architects and interior designers. This collection of approximately 29,000 photographs includes images of Pennsylvania Dutch interiors and Lutheran Churches.

• American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project 1936-1940

  Life histories of individuals from a variety of backgrounds are featured in this collection of 2,900 documents. Interviews were conducted by over 300 writers for the Federal Writers' Folklore project as part of the WPA (U.S. Works Progress--later Work Projects--Administration), 1936-1940. A good source for vignettes from the German American experience.

• Color Photographs from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1938-1944

  Color photographs from the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information. One photograph is entitled: Gus Worke, a farmer who came from Germany 40 years ago, Southington, Conn.