Subject: German Americans / Place: Germany / Language: German - Philadelphia Area Archives Search Results

Extent:: 2.0 linear feet (5 boxes)
Abstract:: Eight scrapbooks of newspaper clippings related to German Americans and German-American issues, dating from 1885 to 1943, and concentrated in the period 1905 to 1938. Most of the clippings are from the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, the New Yorker Herold, or the New York Times. Subjects include international news, general news, politics, obituaries, bequests, business, singing clubs, religion, and poems. The obituary clippings primarily cover prominent German Americans of the time and some Germans.

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.17 linear feet (1 box + 3 legal-size folders)
Abstract:: The Frauenhilfsfond was the women's auxiliary of the Hilfsfond (Relief Fund), a German-American charitable organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, devoted to war relief and humanitarian aid in German-speaking areas overseas during and after the First World War. The Frauenhilfsfond was essentially an umbrella group of German-American women's organizations in the Philadelphia area that coordinated the women’s efforts related to the relief work. The collection contains the complete minutes of the group from August 1914 until March 1917, as well as a record of donations received from March 1915 to April 1917. It also includes a log of homemade knitted items produced for overseas relief from October 1919 to March 1920, as well as a few items dated in the early 1920s related to campaigns to feed destitute children in German-speaking areas in Europe, efforts that were led by the American Friends Service Committee. The records dating from after 1917 appear to overlap with the activities...(see more)

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.33 linear feet (2 boxes)
Abstract:: This collection consists of correspondence, photographs and memorabilia from the Krutzke (Krutzky) family. The correspondence is mostly addressed to Herbert Krutzke and his wife, Luise (Louise) Krutzke (née Greger), German Americans who came from East Prussia and lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The correspondents are family members and several friends living in Germany. The correspondence falls into two time periods, 1911 to 1934 and 1948 to 1969. The memorabilia includes an art work, partly sewn, with a handwritten text, created by a German child in school, in the 1860s or early 1870s.

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 6.25 linear feet (5 paige boxes)
Abstract:: The Women’s Auxiliary of the German Society of Pennsylvania was founded in 1900 to serve as an additional charitable arm of the Society, with particular emphasis on charity for families in distress in the Philadelphia area. Since its founding in 1764, the German Society had provided charitable assistance to German-speaking immigrants in the community, especially those newly arrived in the country. With German immigration on the decline in the early 20th century, the Women's Auxiliary assumed the greater portion of the Society's charitable work. After the First and Second World Wars the Auxiliary engaged in war relief to German speaking lands directly and in cooperation with Quaker relief agencies. As state and federal government undertook more and more welfare work in the city, the auxiliary charter was changed in the 1950s to provide scholarship aid to students who majored in German language study. The records include annual reports, charters, bylaws, minute books, treasurer’s...(see more)

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.5 linear feet (2 boxes + 1 oversize folder)
Abstract:: This collection contains the records of the German Society of Pennsylvania's Foreign Relief Committee, which from late 1919 through 1922 contributed humanitarian aid to the populations of Germany and Austria in the wake of the First World War. Most of the aid was distributed through the American Friends Service Committee. The collection contains correspondence, appeals, reports, financial records, and ephemera. The correspondence includes letters from 78 charitable organizations in Hamburg, Germany, that applied for distributions of donated sacks of flour in 1919; and nine letters written from various parts of Germany in 1922 during the period of inflation. The Foreign Relief Committee was comprised of an all-male committee of the Society and a committee of the Society's Women's Auxiliary, whose greatest contributions were in the form of knitted and sewn items produced by the members at weekly gatherings. Also included is a 1929 letter from the Deutsche Liga der freien...(see more)

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.83 linear feet (2 boxes)
Abstract:: The collection contains an unpublished manuscript by Max Heinrici, and several photographs of him in his later years. The manuscript (approximately 460 leaves) tells the history of the German Society of Pennsylvania from 1915 to 1935, and was intended as a continuation of an earlier history of the Society that Heinrici had published in 1917, co-authored by Oswald Seidensticker. It includes biographical sketches of prominent Society leaders, and lists of its officers and board of directors for the period. The text gives perspectives on the experiences of German Americans in the era of the First World War, and contains material on charitable relief work carried on by German Americans in Philadelphia to benefit Germany and Austria-Hungary during and after the war.

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 2.5 linear feet
Abstract:: Henry Shmith (also spelled Heinrich Schmitz and Henry Schmidt) was born on August 21, 1899 in Germany. Shmith traveled extensively, working as a professional chef at many locations in the Delaware Valley region of the United States and frequently returning to Germany for visits. He settled in Glen Mills, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where he passed away in 1982. The Henry Shmith scrapbooks, 1924-1979 (bulk 1950-1975), consist of about 20 volumes compiled by Henry Shmith, with photographs as well as clippings, ephemera, stamps, greeting cards, and letters. The scrapbooks, heavily annotated by Shmith, mostly in German with some English, focus on areas in the Delaware Valley or in and around Germany (including Spiegelau).

Held at: Delaware County Historical Society [Contact Us]

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