Title: Madison Turners Records
Inclusive Dates: 1855-1950

Creator:

• Madison Turners (Wis.)

Call Number: Wis Mss QQ

Quantity: 2.8 c.f. (10 archives boxes including 17 volumes)

Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

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

Abstract:

Records of the Madison Turners or Turnverein, a society founded in 1855 to stress physical education and “rational ideas,” including minutes and correspondence, 1855-1952; financial and membership reports, 1889-1940; and miscellaneous committee records, clippings, and memorabilia. The majority of the records predating 1935 are in German.

Language: English, German

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000qq

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These records are those of the Madison German Turnverein Society or Association, member of the National American Turners (Turnerbund). The society was founded in 1855 as a model to the parent German society by a number of German settlers in Wisconsin, mainly those displaced ones from 1848 in Germany. It is a society for physical education and “rational ideas.” Although it is not a political organization, there are some declarations--from the National, not the local Turnverein--of the political ideals sanctioned by them during the several political eras covered by these papers (1855-1951). There is little of a political or historical interest in the correspondence after 1920, that is, until 1938-1939. Prior to 1931, most of the materials are handwritten in German script. The correspondence contains much of interest to the social or economic historian, but it is limited otherwise to the following matters: gymnastic activities, membership lists, minutes of the Turnverein and the Damenverein (Ladies' Auxiliary), speeches, Turnfests, financial letters, labor relations, Social Security data, and various legal contracts.

There is also information to be found on the following subjects: travel in Germany, World Wars I and II, friends of the German House at the University of Wisconsin, Olympic Games of 1932 and 1936, Liberty Bond drives, the American Monthly magazine, Prohibition, the Depression of 1929, the “Lost Provinces of Germany and Austria,” the U.S. Wild Life Sanctuary, Frost's Woods, and the Indianapolis Gymnastic Union Normal College and its summer Camp, Brosius, at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

There are a number of financial accounts and notes which include most of the expenses connected with the operation of the Turnverein gymnastic society at Madison. In these can be found the original constitution of 1855 and its various revisions of later dates. It should be noted that some of the correspondence includes carbon copies of letters of various dates on both sides.

The volumes that are included in the collection contain the minutes, election results, financial accounts, and membership lists from 1855, and all prior to 1930 are written entirely in German handwritten script. There are some letters which were filed chronologically by the secretaries in these volumes.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Madison Turnverein Society, Madison, Wisconsin, May 26, 1953, and March 15, 1954.

	Correspondence
Box   1	1855-1933
Box   2	1934-1940
Box   3	1943-1950
Box   4	Financial reports, 1889-1940
Box   5	Physical Education Committee reports, 1944-1948
Box   5	Membership records, 1901-1940
Box   6	Publications, National and Local Scope and Content Note Vertassung des Madison Turnvereins, 1923 Principles & Statutes - American Turnerbund, 1924 (Sheboygan), 1926, 1931, 1935 Sheboygan Gymnastic Society, 1931-1932 Lincoln Turner Gym & Swimming Pool, Schedule of classes, 1934-1935 Platform & Constitution of the Madison Turnverein, 1937 Principles & Statutes of the American Turners, 1947 American Turners Endowment Trust American Turners Annual Report, 1938-1939 (89th), 1939-1940 (90th), 1946-1947 (97th) (2), 1947-1948 (2), 1948-1949, 1949-1950 Official minutes of the 35th Convention of the American Turnerbund, 1935 Official minutes of the 36th Convention of the American Turnerbund, 1937 Official minutes of the 38th Convention of the American Turnerbund, 1940 Official minutes of the 41st Convention of the American Turnerbund, 1946 Official minutes of the 42nd Convention of the American Turnerbund, 1948 Offizielles Protokoll der 34sten Tagsatzung des Amerikanischen Turnerbundes, Juni 1933 Vebungen des 26sten Bundes-Turnfestes, Juli 1893 Brosius Goldenes Jubilaum, 1864-1914
	Scrapbooks containing minutes, clippings, memoranda, and memorabilia
Volume   1	1855 February-1869 February
Volume   2	1859 February-1863 September
Volume   3	1863 October-1865
Volume   4	1867 July-1870 January
Volume   5	Constitution of , 1876
Volume   6	1892 January-1895 July
Volume   7	1893 July-1906 January
Volume   8	1895 August-1898 January
Volume   9	1880 February-1917 June
Volume   10	1899 January-1907 December
Volume   11	1908 January-1916 December
Volume   12	1914 July-1930 May
Volume   13	1917 January-1938 September
Volume   14	1917 January-1922 January
Volume   15	1923 January-1927 December
Volume   16	1929 January-1934 December
Volume   17	Minutes, 1942 May-1951 September