New York Turn Verein Ledgers

Title

Rights

Copyright Max Kade Center for German-American Studies, 2024. Please contact the rightsholder for permission to use these works.

Type

Collection

Creator

New York Turn Verein

Description

This collection contains 203 ledgers of the New York Turn Verein (NYTV), an organization founded by German immigrants in 1850 in New York City. Throughout the 155-year tenure captured in these ledgers, NYTV secretaries kept meticulous records of membership, meeting minutes, committee activities, the organization's finances, and more. These documents demonstrate the NYTV's commitment to the Turner motto, "a sound mind and a sound body," which they achieved via training in gymnastics, participation in German heritage activities like singing, theater, and language school, and the publication of Bahn frei!, a periodical devoted to NYTV activities and members. This collection also contains limited records of NYTV members' participation in the United States' Civil War, during which New York Turners supported Abraham Lincoln, and the records of the Mount Vernon Turn Verein, archived with the NYTV ledgers after the two organizations merged in 1983 to become American Turners New York.

Until approximately 1946, NYTV secretaries recorded data in these ledgers in handwritten German. Following the mid-1940s, much of the ledger record-keeping transitioned to English text produced on a typewriter. Transkribus, a software program which uses artificial intelligence to recognize German handwriting, was used to apply handwritten text recognition (HTR) to a few handwritten ledgers (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 3.1) for purposes of greater accessibility. Researchers or other parties interested in learning more are encouraged to inquire with Max Kade staff at the University of Kansas.

Language

ger

eng

Place

New York (inhabited place)

Relation

Turner Collections, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Archives

Central Turnverein of New York records, (1890-1895), New York Public Library

Lawrence Turnverein records, Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Lawrence Turnverein records, Watkins Museum of History

Rights Holder

Max Kade Center for German-American Studies, University of Kansas