Description

Texas Wendish Heritage Society & Museum in Serbin, TX is one of more than 15,400 museums in the MuseumsUSA directory. Find an exciting museum to visit where you live or vacation today.

History

The museum, founded in 1980 by the Texas Wendish Heritage Society, was housed in an old school building. In 1988, a new facility, which houses the archives, library, administrative offices, gift shop, and a permanent display interpreting the history of the Wends, was added. The museum complex includes the former St. Paul Parochial School buildings and two log buildings.

The mission of the Texas Wendish Heritage Museum, Archives, and Library (TWHM) is to preserve, interpret, and make available for study the history of the Texas Wends, one of the European ethnic groups which immigrated to Texas in the 19th century. The Wends are a Slavic race, but were citizens of Prussia and old Saxony, an area now in East Germany.

Artifacts Collections

The museum collection includes artifacts brought from the homeland, Lusatia, and objects used by the Wendish in Texas. Personal, household, religious, educational, agricultural, and business artifacts are included in the exhibits.

Research Collections

The archives' primary collection focus is Wendish heritage in Texas from 1555 to 1990. Collection includes: 16.69 cubic feet manuscript collections, 15.45 cubic feet institutional records, 800 books, pamphlets, 3,000 photographs, maps, one oral history, 13.47 cubic feet newspapers.

Ninety-nine percent of the printed matter, manuscripts, and certificates of the historical collection are in Wendish and German. Most of these are in the old fraktur printing and the old German script.

Five hundred and fifty of the books are rare, and focus on religious, historical, and educational subjects. Those most revered are the Kilian translations into Wendish and the original writings of Rev. Johann Kilian, the religious leader of the 1854 immigration. Many early editions of the writings of Martin Luther are included. There are also about 1,000 images, collections of personal papers, the Anne Blasig research collection as well as baptismal, confirmation, and marriage certificates. The portraits of wedding couples show the progression from the traditional black bridal dress of the 19th century to the grey and eventually the white of the 20th century.