We’re deeply appreciative of everyone who has come forward to tell us about their collections of historic German immigrant correspondence and share them with German Heritage in Letters. Interest in working with these important sources for German-American history and the history of migration more broadly is strong among people curious about the past, citizen scholars, and academic researchers. We are excited to hear from future visitors to our site what they have learned from the letters we share and about how they’re being put to use in research, teaching, exhibitions, and other contexts.

If you have a collection you are interested in contributing to the project, we invite you to provide some basic information about your letters by filling out our online contribution form. Click the link and then, if “Collection” is not already selected, choose it from the drop down menu under “What type of item would you like to contribute?” You can then fill out the form with some basic information about your collection, such as the number of letters you have to share, the dates covered, family and individual names associated with the letters, and any information you might have about the communities where the letters were sent from or received. Please be sure to include a working email address and someone from our project team will respond within two business days.

In the meantime, we invite you to download and review our printed intake form (to provide background information about your collection) and our contributor form (to grant us permission to use your collection for research and publication). You can also reach out directly (by email to contact -at- germanletters.org) and we’ll be happy to explain the contribution process in further detail.

Vielen Dank!

Left to right: Contributor William Weinhardt shares a family photograph from the 1940s with his wife, Sandra; Kurrentschrift transcriber Katherine Schober explains the text of a historic family letter to a contributor at our St. Louis Digitization Day; John G. Weinhardt with the collection of family letters he has translated and shared with the project.