Title: Ernest Schirm Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1918-1969

Creator:

• Schirm, Ernest, 1886-1969

Call Number: Mss 92

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Correspondence and diaries of Ernest Schirm, an articulate carpenter from Milwaukee, Wisconsin which focus primarily on his concerns relating to World War I veterans affairs, the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Status of Forces Agreement, United States foreign policy, government spending, communism, civil rights, the Black revolution, and art. The collection includes a lively correspondence, 1941-1969, with his elected representatives and local press; at least one diary for each decade between 1919 and 1969, containing annotated clippings, photographs, circulars, correspondence, and mementos; art notebooks and papers from Schirm's classes at Marquette University; and genealogy notes.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00092

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Ernest Schirm was born in Woolstock, Iowa, the son of Anna Bohy and Michael Schirm. He attended grade school in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he was unable to finish beyond the eighth grade; however, he did attend Marquette University during the last years of his life and was the oldest registered student. By vocation a carpenter, and by avocation a sketch artist, Schirm never married. He was a veteran of World War I, a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression, and an active participant for many years in Republican Party Politics in Wisconsin. He resided in Milwaukee for most of his life, including his last years.

Schirm began keeping a diary while a soldier in France during World War I. When he returned to the United States in 1919, he protested by letter and by telegram to the U.S. Army that his discharge was being unduly delayed. Both the letters and the diary were but harbingers of many years of such activity. Throughout the remainder of his life, Schirm kept up a fairly lively correspondence with his congressmen and with the editors of his local press. Considering his educational and vocational background, both the number and the articulateness of his letters is surprising. In addition, he continued to keep a diary. Even though he wrote nothing at all for some years, he did create at least one diary during each decade of his life from 1919 to 1969, thus adequately and regularly documenting the activities and affairs that interested him.

In 1954 Schirm contacted the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to ascertain the extent of our interest in his “Working Man's Diary of Hard Times”, which he hoped would “show some of the problems of the working people, not as a herd of work animals, but as a personality with [their] . . .own problems.” (See Box 1, Folder 1). A representative of the Society examined his papers, expressed interest in them, and his sister, Margaret Quackenbush, transferred the papers to the Society after Schirm's death on August 23, 1969.

Some information supplied by Lorna Semrad.

The Ernest Schirm Papers consist of correspondence, photographs, art school notebooks, mementos, circulars, and his “Working Man's Diary of Hard Times”, a series of sixteen loose leaf and two bound diaries, kept from his World War I days through 1969.

The correspondence, arranged chronologically, is comprised almost exclusively of letters to and from Schirm's elected representatives from 1941 to 1969, including Joseph McCarthy, Alexander Wiley, William Proxmire, Gaylord Nelson, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., and Philip F. La Follette, relating to Schirm's complaints or requests for information in reference to veterans' affairs, bills concerning veterans, foreign policy, communism, and other areas of interest to him. Many of the letters are marked with category titles, as though Schirm intended to paste them in his loose leaf diaries, which already contain many letters. In addition, there are a few letters that Schirm wrote to his mother from Europe during World War I.

The diaries contain clippings, photographs, circulars, correspondence, and mementos pasted onto notebook paper with Schirm's comments written in the margin. Hand sketches drawn by Schirm are also included from time to time. There are gaps in the record between World War I and the Depression; between the latter and Schirm's retirement in 1947; and during the 1950s when Schirm was concerned primarily with the Status of Forces Agreement. He did, however, fill the gaps somewhat by saving clippings from all years, pasting them into his books later and commenting on them in retrospect. In addition, he was a consistent letter writer over the years, and the correspondence file helps to fill the gaps.

He kept the most voluminous records from 1964 to 1969, with the heaviest concentration occurring in 1965. During that year Schirm kept almost a daily record, filling five notebooks in the process, with some chronological overlap. Whenever overlap occurred, the processor made no attempt to mix the contents of the notebooks, Rather, they are arranged in a rough chronological order, using the titles that Schirm gave them.

The diaries were in various stages of completion when received by the Society. The many blank pages (since removed) suggested that Schirm was actively engaged in working on his diaries at his death. He apparently often returned to his diaries, to read and reminisce, to make additional comments and to add such clippings as he felt were similar to the subject titles of the specific notebook. Some notebooks had many unrelated odds and ends shoved into them rather haphazardly. In those cases, the obvious extraneous matter was removed and either discarded or placed in a more appropriate location.

In both the diaries and his letters, Schirm was consistently concerned about veterans' affairs, U. S. foreign policy, government spending, the American Legion, communism, and art. In his later years he became increasingly absorbed with the Civil Rights movement and the Black Revolution. He was given to comparing conditions of the 1960s with the hard times he had known during the Depression. His point of view and the strength of his views changed with passing years; the joviality of his youth gave way to bitterness and at times an almost bigoted attitude towards the problems of America in the 1960s and towards the efforts of American political leaders to solve those problems. Many of the terms he employed were derisive, but are undoubtedly indicative of much of American public opinion of the time.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Margaret Quackenbush, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 2, 1970.

Processing Information

Processed by Dennis Rowley, June 9, 1970.

Box   1 Folder   1	Correspondence, 1918; 1941-1968
	Diaries
Box   1 Folder   2	World War I Diary: “Army 3rd Book”, 1917-1919; 1950; 1964
Box   1 Folder   3	“Depression I”
Box   1 Folder   4	“Depression Years “
Box   1 Folder   5	CCC Diaries, 1934-1935
Box   1 Folder   6	“Retired 1947”
Box   1 Folder   7	“Status of Forces Agreement, 1951-1957”
Box   2 Folder   1	1964, Jan. - Aug.
Box   2 Folder   2	1964, Sept. - Dec.
Box   2 Folder   3	1965, Jan. - Aug.
Box   2 Folder   4	1965, April - Aug.
Box   2 Folder   5	1965, Aug. - Oct.
Box   3 Folder   1	1965, Oct. - Dec.
Box   3 Folder   2	1965, Dec. - 1966, April
Box   3 Folder   3	1966, Aug. - Dec.
Box   3 Folder   4	1967, Jan. - May
Box   3 Folder   5	1967, May - Aug.
Box   4 Folder   1	1967, Sept. - 1968, Jan.
Box   4 Folder   2	1968, Jan. - April
Box   4 Folder   3	1968, April - June
Box   4 Folder   4	1968, June - Sept.
Box   4 Folder   5	1968, Sept. - 1969, Jan.
Box   5 Folder   1	1969, Jan. - Aug.
Box   5 Folder   2	“Revolution, 1968, Sept. - 1969, May”
Box   5 Folder   3	“Revolution, 1969, May - July”
Box   5 Folder   4	“Mostly Revolution”
Box   5 Folder   5	“A Mishmash of Things That Happened”
Box   5 Folder   6	“Some of Everything”
Box   5 Folder   7	Genealogy notes and art notebooks

Correspondent	Box	Folder
John C. Brophy (U.S. Representative)	1	6
Allen J. Busby (Wisconsin Assemblyman)	1	3
Raymond J. Cannon (U.S. Representative)	1	3
Philip F. La Follette (Wisconsin Governor)	1	3
Robert M. La Follette, Jr. (U.S. Senator)	1	3
Joseph McCarthy (U.S. Senator)	1	1 & 6
Gaylord Nelson (U.S. Senator)	1	1
William Proxmire (U.S. Senator)	1	1
John C. Schafer (U.S. Representative)	1	3
Thad F. Wasielewski (U.S. Representative)	1	1
Alexander Wiley (U.S. Senator)	1	1 & 6
Clement J. Zablocki (U.S. Representative)	1	1