Heinrich A. Rattermann Collection, 1732-1923 | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

Scope and Contents:

Heinrich A. Rattermann of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a German-American poet, historian, businessman, and editor. This collection concerns the impact of the German-American on the history of development in America, and includes published and unpublished literary manuscripts; deeds, bonds, and other legal material; bills and receipts; and records of the Narren Club, Liedertafel, and the German Literary Club of Cincinnati. There is also a sizable amount of personal, business, and legal correspondence, relating to German language instruction, curricula in the German language schools, American education, German-American publishing and journalism, Der Deutsche Pionier, German-American insurance, Cincinnati Orpheus Society, Ohio politics, and the Civil War. The correspondents include Julius Hilgard, Gustav Koerner, and Oswald Seidensticker.

The Rattermann Collection came to the University of Illinois in 1915. A biography of Rattermann, a history of the collection, and an inventory of its contents are available in Donna-Christine Sell and Dennis Francis Walle, Guide to the Heinrich A. Rattermann Collection of German-American Manuscripts(1979).

This collection is now also supplemented by a portfolio of Rattermann manuscripts preserved in turn by Henry Remak and Horst Frenz, two Indiana University professors. The Office of University Archives and Records Management of Indiana University very generously gave this portfolio to the University of Illinois Library in 2009. The attached PDF file provides a list of the additional manuscripts, as well as two microfilm reels reproducing volumes in the main collection.