Shaping the Circle

EXHIBIT

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This exhibit uses archival materials housed in the Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives and narrative text from George Theodore Probst's, The Germans in Indianapolis: 1840-1918 (1989) and Theodore Stempfel's, Fifty Years of Unrelenting German Aspirations in Indianapolis: 1848-1898 (1991) to demonstrate the influence of German-Americans on the culture of Indianapolis, particularly focusing on their impact on music, architecture, and physical education. While it suggests the role immigrants have played in shaping American culture, it also explores the cultural conflict encountered by German Americans in Indianapolis and the process of acculturation by which they adjusted to this conflict.

Click on any item in the table of contents listed below to go directly to a particular part of the EXHIBIT. You may also move through this entire section using the previous and next arrows. Visit the ABOUT page to learn more about how to use the EXHIBIT section .

• INTRODUCTION
• MUSIC
• ARCHITECTURE
• PHYSICAL EDUCATION
• CULTURAL CONFLICT AND ACCULTURATION

INTRODUCTION

"Images of Yesteryear"
Why Germans Came to America
Why Germans Settled in Indianapolis

MUSIC

Maennerchor: Humble Beginnings
Maennerchor: Growth and Conflict
Maennerchor: Rejuvenation
Other Musical Societies
The Musikverein
The Saengerfest of 1908

ARCHITECTURE

Bruno Schmitz and Rudolf Schwarz
Bohlen, Meyer, Gibson & Associates
Vonnegut & Bohn
Adolph Scherrer
George Kessler

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The Turnverein
Physical Education
Turnfests
The Normal College

CULTURAL CONFLICT AND ACCULTURATION

The Freethinkers
Temperance
Observing the Sabbath
The Know Nothing Party
Use of the English Language
World War I
After the War

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