Descendants of German patriot give $1M collection to KU

LAWRENCE -- As a child, the moment Ellen Schultheis Kelley met anyone from Germany, she proudly mentioned she was a great-great-great-granddaughter of the 18th-century German poet and patriot Ernst Moritz Arndt. Even at 5 years old, the Kansas resident knew the significance of her connection to a man for whom a university and four museums in Germany are named.

Nearly 145 years after Arndt's death, Ellen, the latest descendant to be put in charge of her family heirlooms, has given a collection of Arndt's letters, family photographs and other personal items -- valued at $1 million -- to the University of Kansas.

The gift from Ellen and her husband, Grant, will be added to the German materials housed in the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies, a library and research center of the KU Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. The collection includes 45 letters from family members and Arndt, who lived from 1769 to 1860; a photo album with 50 mid-19th-century portraits; monogrammed silverware; a pocket telescope; and Arndt's stamp for wax-sealing letters, among other items. It is the only private collection of Arndt materials known to exist.

William Keel, chair of the department, said the collection is significant for many reasons.

"For one, there's the importance of Arndt himself," Keel said. "He was a significant literary figure, a history professor and political advocate. Through his poetry and other writings, Arndt called for the people of Prussia, Bavaria and other German states to throw off the shackles of Napoleon and the French from 1812 to 1813. He was also considered the father of the 1848-49 movement to unite the 39 states of Germany."

In addition, he said, the collection is important because it includes Arndt's letters to his son, Hartmuth, who immigrated to the United States in 1855 and eventually settled in what is now the Kansas City, Kan., area.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway thanked the Kelleys.

"German immigrants are an important part of Kansas history," Hemenway said. "We are grateful that Grant and Ellen Kelley have generously chosen to give KU such a personal collection of materials dating to an ancestor of those immigrants."

Coincidentally, Keel said, the Kelleys have given KU the collection while the university is hosting a guest professor, Walter Erhart, from Arndt's namesake university, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Griefswald. He said Erhart hopes to analyze some of the material before he leaves KU at the end of April.

The collection was given to Ellen by her parents, Arndt's great-great grandson, Bob Schultheis, journalism '47, and Louise. Ellen said her mother spent 20 years piecing together family names with photographs, cataloguing the collection and having a few of the letters translated.

"She took the time to put the puzzle back together," Ellen said. "We're fortunate these materials have always been well taken care of and stored."

When her parents retired to the Marais des Cygnes Wildlife Area near Pleasanton, they gave the heirlooms to Ellen and asked her and Grant to find someone to preserve and appreciate the collection. The Kelleys' research prompted the couple to journey to Bonn University in Germany, where Arndt's home has been turned into a museum next to the Rhine River.

"No one knew there were any Arndt descendants," Ellen said of the visit. "There was something amazing about standing next to the tree that we had seen in artist renderings and in other impressions of Arndt's house. I was pregnant with my first child and had our picture taken there, with the next generation on the way, the Rhine in the background -- it just completed the circle for me."

Later, while researching for a home for the collection, Grant came across Keel's name on the Internet and e-mailed him to ask if the KU professor would be interested.

"It made sense," Grant said. "We have a fondness for KU, and Ellen's father graduated from there, and we were trying to fulfill her parents' wishes."

Grant, who grew up in Dallas, earned a degree in finance and real estate at the University of Texas-Austin in 1982. He is a Kansas City area real estate broker, an aircraft dealer and a former sales representative for clothing companies. He and Ellen have a daughter, Lauren. Lauren, her uncle Robert Schultheis, his two sons and Ellen are the youngest descendants of Arndt. Ellen, who was born and raised in Kansas City, Mo., attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she studied English education. She is the general manager of Metro Networks, a provider of traffic and news reporting for media outlets. The Kelleys live at Lake Quivira.

The Max Kade Center is privately supported through gifts to the Kansas University Endowment Association. KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and is one of the largest.