Evelyn Steidtmann collection

The Evelyn Steidtmann collection documents one woman's passion for bridge and for making BGSU students, in particular foreign students, feel welcome in Bowling Green.

The bulk of this collection is devoted to bridge instruction at BGSU. Class rosters and Campus Bridge Club membership rosters predominate. A small amount of correspondence and Evelyn Steidtmann's own notes and reminiscences about instructing bridge at BGSU are very insightful. The Bowling Green Bridge Club Commemorative booklet from 1991 drew from the collection for most of its content and provides a comprehensive overview of Mrs. Steidtmann's accomplishments and a history of bridge playing in Bowling Green. A few photographs and newsclippings help illustrate further Evelyn Steidtmann's important role in the social life of Bowling Green.

A smaller segment of the collection documents Evelyn Steidtmann's student involvement, in particular organizing social gatherings for BGSU foreign students. The collection contains a few foreign student files pertaining to visiting high school exchange students, the Association for World Travel and the BGSU World Student Association (which the Steidtmann's were instrumental in establishing).

Correspondence from these students after leaving BGSU conveys to the researcher what high regard they held for Evelyn Steidtmann both as an instructor and as a gracious hostess. Receipt books and a listing of roomers at the Steidtmann home are included to provide insights into what rent cost in private homes in Bowling Green from 1967-1992. An account of Mrs. Steidtmann's participation in establishing the Beta Phi Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega at BGSU in 1944 is included in a November 1944 issue of The Lyre.