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In 1836 German immigrants Philip and Maria Sachs and their two children settled in Indianapolis. Over the years they received letters from family and friends in Germany and in other areas of the United States. These letters provide information about conditions in Germany and about the experiences of German immigrants in the United States.

The David Hovde Civil War Tract Collection contains mostly tract publications from the American Tract Society, the American Sunday School Union, the American Bible Society, and similar nonprofit organizations during the American Civil War. The tracts were used to promote moral and spiritual uplift for soldiers and sailors and to inspire patriotism.

The Indiana University School of Medicine emerged from a number of private, proprietary medical schools that existed in Indianapolis in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The most important of these private medical schools were the Medical College of Indiana and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, both of which operated in Indianapolis. In the first decade of the twentieth century efforts began to try to merge these private schools under the state universities then in Indiana, Purdue University and Indiana University. The merger of several medical schools under Purdue University was short-lived. In 1903 Indiana University established first year (classroom) medical studies at Bloomington, and in 1907 merged with the Medical College of Indiana and the remnant of the Purdue medical school to establish clinical instruction in Indianapolis. In subsequent years the School of Medicine was housed in Indianapolis on a large campus with several hospitals, clinical, and research facilities. First year medical studies were moved to Indianapolis by the 1950s.

Immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century founded organizations that served as social centers, maintained cultural identity, and promoted the ideals and the interests of the immigrants and their American-born descendants. The American Turners is an example of such an organization. Established by German immigrants in 1850, the American Turners advocated a liberal political philosophy and fought to protect both the political rights and the German heritage of the immigrants. The Turners encouraged the practice of exercise and physical fitness, and they convinced school boards in many cities to make physical education a part of the educational curriculum. The American Turner records include annual reports, minutes and correspondence relating to the national officers, correspondence with local societies, national convention minutes and materials, financial and membership records, national committee records, records and materials from national sporting events sponsored by the American Turners, records of the Turner Pioneers and the Women's Auxiliary, Turner publications, and materials from the German Turner movement and other organizations related to the American Turners.

William Vincent Wheeler, founder of Wheeler Mission Ministries of Indianapolis, Indiana, was born in 1845 in Ohio and in 1853, his family moved to Indiana. After serving in the Civil War, Wheeler moved to Indianapolis where he was employed by Layman-Carey Hardware Company beginning as a delivery driver and eventually becoming head of the sales department. In 1868, Wheeler experienced a religious conversion and became active in the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church as well as becoming a lay-preacher. In 1893, the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) opened a home for unwed mothers. Wheeler volunteered his help and suggested the range of services offered be broadened to include men, women and children in the form of a rescue mission. He became part-time superintendent of the mission and in 1895, resigned from the hardware company to become a full-time salaried superintendent of the mission, one of the first charitable operations of its kind in Indianapolis. He remained in this position until his death in 1908. The papers consist of correspondence of members of the Wheeler family, family photographs, Wheeler's civil war diary and family history materials.

The Indianapolis Maennerchor (men's choir) emerged from a circle of young men who were part of a wave of immigration that followed the failed European revolutions of 1848. From its formal organization in June 1854 and first performance in May 1855, the Maennerchor provided a cultural focus for the 48ers that was as important as the Asound mind and body@ activities of the Turners. After the American Civil War the Maennerchor emerged as one of the most significant German organizations in Indianapolis. By 1900 the apparent cohesiveness of the German community began to fragment when the Maennerchor, and their main patron, John P. Frenzel, began to distance themselves from the new Deutches Haus (German House) constructed by the Socialer Turnverein. This split was emphasized by the construction of Maennerchor Hall in 1907. World War I hurt the German community as a whole, and in combination with the death of Frenzel, the Maennerchor began to struggle. The Depression forced the Maennerchor to leave their hall in the early 1930s and become affiliated with the Athenaeum (Deutches Haus). In 1943 the Maennerchor joined with the Knights of Columbus and Murat Shrine to present a mixed chorus performance known as the Triad Concert that helped to revive awareness and interest in the group. The decline of German societies in Indianapolis during the 1960s led to strains which prompted a break with the Athenaeum in 1973. An attempt to return to the Maennerchor Hall failed when the building was razed in 1974. Through the 1990s they have struggled with membership and financial constraints, but performed until 2018, when they performed for the last time, singing the national anthem at Victory Field.

Many Germans immigrated to the United States following the failure of an 1848 revolution designed to introduce democratic reforms into the governments of the German states. Among these immigrants were members of the Turners, an athletic and political organization founded in Germany during the second decade of the nineteenth century. Turners quickly established societies (known as Turnverein or Turngemeinde) in the American cities in which they settled. These societies served as athletic, political, and social centers for German communities in the United States. The Turners' most important contribution to American life in their communities has been their advocacy of physical education and fitness. Turners successfully lobbied local school boards in many cities for the inclusion of physical education classes in the curriculum, and Turner instructors served as the directors of physical education programs in many school systems in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.