The Madden Collection on German Travelers in California was the personal collection of Dr. Henry Miller Madden (1912-1982). The books in this collection were written (in German) almost exclusively by wealthy, 19th-century, privileged, Anglo-European males interested in Westward Expansion in the “Wild West” of the United States. Dr. Madden, a bibliophile, a Germanophile, and scholar in addition to being a librarian, was University Librarian at Fresno State from 1949 to 1979.
In 2021, it came to light that Dr. Madden was a Nazi sympathizer through letters and other documents in his extensive personal papers spanning decades at the Special Collections Research Center in the Fresno State Library. The campus task force formed to research his papers for any and all evidence published their final report. in May 2022. As a result, in July 2022 the California State University Board of Trustees voted to remove Dr. Madden’s name from the Library, which had been bestowed on the Library in 1981 prior to Dr. Madden’s death. For more information on Dr. Madden’s personal papers, please see our finding aid guide.
Books from this collection include:
