Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Keidel family span the years 1821-1937, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the periods 1861-1865 and 1890-1914. Included are papers concerning two of the seven children of Wilhelm Victor and Albertina Kramer Keidel, Ludwig Julius, or “Louis,” Keidel (born 1834) and Herman F. Keidel (born 1832), and one grandson, George Charles Keidel (1868-1942). The papers also include a scrapbook concerning the Jacob B. Garber family.
George C. Keidel, professor of romance languages at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and later an employee of the United States Copyright Office in the Library of Congress, wrote a number of works concerning Aesop’s Fables and other early writings. The collection includes his annotations, correspondence, and writings concerning those subjects. Keidel’s papers also contain a manuscript of his reminiscences of the “old gymnasium,” or school, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University during the late 1880s.
Papers concerning Herman F. Keidel regard his military career during the Civil War. Letters from Keidel to his family in Maryland, written from Hammond General Hospital, Fort McHenry, Point Lookout, Maryland, and Fort Delaware, Delaware, concern the Battle of Antietam, his service in the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry, and life as a prisoner of war in Union prisons. His experiences are supplemented by research reports compiled by George C. Keidel.
Louis J. Keidel’s papers are primarily business in nature, including bills from the Civil War era, a certificate of his birth and baptism, and life insurance policies.
Also included among the papers is a scrapbook concerning the Jacob B. Garber family of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, into which George C. Keidel married. The scrapbook includes watercolors of birds and other ornithological information describing avian habitat, range, food sources, and habits as they existed in the 1870s.