The library of the Max Kade Institute at the University of Wisconsin is a resource for those seeking a better understanding of the experience of German-speaking immigrants to North America and their descendants, as well as how those people have helped shape North America and been shaped by it. Our collections include rare German-language items written or published in America,
ranging from cookbooks and religious works to family records, historical texts, and literature, as well as books, pamphlets, and articles essential to research in this field. Such materials are significant in helping us understand the experiences, histories, and culture of one large group of immigrants to North America. The Max Kade Institute is dedicated to preserving these documents and serving as a repository for them to ensure that they remain available to scholars and the general public for generations to come. A virtual exhibit of the collection can be viewed online.
Included in the Max Kade Institute's holdings are:
- A collection of more than 2600 books, pamphlets, and periodicals in the German language published in America, and/or by German-American authors;
- A collection of more than 4500 books, articles, and pamphlets dealing significantly with political, cultural and religious aspects of German, Swiss, and Austrian settlement in North America;
- A collection of more than 325 family histories, diaries, and manuscripts of German-speaking immigrants and descendants;
- More than thirty current journals or newsletters on the subject of German-American studies or genealogy.
- A listing of recent Library acquisitions can be viewed by clicking: New Acquisitions.
A professional librarian is available to assist visitors who wish to use the
Max Kade Institute library. Researchers are encouraged to make appointments
in advance. For questions about library holdings, or to make donations, please contact Kevin Kurdylo at (608) 262-7546 or kkurdylo@wisc.edu.
Additional information:
- The library catalog is now online at: http://csumc.wisc.edu/mki/mkisources/search.html
- Interested in donating materials to the library? Please click here: Donations
- Past issues of the MKI Friends Newsletter may be viewed by clicking here.
- PDF bibliographies of the library and music archives for the Sauk City, Wisconsin, Freie Gemeinde may be viewed here: http://mki.wisc.edu/Resources/Freie_Gemeinde/Sauk_Gemeinde.htm
- Letters of the Frautschi Family, Swiss immigrants who settled
in Wisconsin, and Christian Frautschi's diaries, are available on-line. Descriptions of farm life, crops,
family life and religion fill pages of the letters, written by
family members spanning the decades between the 1850s to the
turn of the 20th century.
The letters and one of the diaries, describing a trip to Europe
in 1905, have been transcribed from the German script into Roman
type and translated into English. The project's web site can be visited at: http://csumc.wisc.edu/FLVA/FLVAhomed.html
- Images of more than two hundred book covers from the collections of the Max Kade Institute have been included in the on-line digital project,
Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books. MKI titles may be viewed from a link on this page: http://bindings.lib.ua.edu/gallery/kade.html.
- Additional virtual exhibits on German Americana are available here: http://mki.wisc.edu/virtualex/exhibits.html
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