The Bremen Public Library has recently donated to a number of wonderful artifacts to Historic Bremen, many of which are available and on display now.
These include a number of photographs that date to the turn of the 20th century. Among them are photos of various bands, baseball teams, the fire department, and foundry workers, and even the 1910 construction of the Dietrich Hotel where the History Center is located. There are also an album of home economics club photos and a 1946 Lutheran church 100th anniversary history, as well as a 1971 Bremen centennial scrapbook with many photos.
Also donated were a collection of bound volumes of the Bremen Enquirer from the 1960s, the 1908 and a 1922 Marshall county land plat atlases, the Monopoly-like Game of Bremen, and some Charles Koontz family memorabilia that includes stock certificates and the original, hand-written, 117-year-old town board resolution authorizing the Koontz brothers to install and operate a telephone system in Bremen.
There are also artifacts of the library itself, including the original fund-raising bank book, building receipts, and meeting records, a set of hanging lamps originally in the lower level, a carousel of hand stamps, a number of photos of the library from the 1950s and 1980s, and blue prints and the architect’s model of the library’s expansion.
Thanks to the staff of the library for safekeeping these items all these years and making them available to the History Center!
In the coming weeks and months, look for posts highlighting some of these terrific items individually. In the meantime, you can see all the pictures of the items on our Flickr account.
Historic Bremen 
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