Historical Lecture on Henry Nehrling

On September 20, 2026, this talk was given to the Freistatt Community. For the very first time, Freistatt learned of the incredible history of Henry Nehrling, Freistatt's first teacher who taught from 1882 to 1887. While in Freistatt, he wrote most of the manuscript of his ornithological masterpiece "Nordamericanische Vogelwelt" in the German langauage and later a 2 volume version set in English entitled; "Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty".  After teaching 65 to 120 students in a one room school over 5 years, he was able to use his self-taught ornithological skills to land a job as the Director of the Public Museum of Milwaukee. From there,  he became a world renown botantist, introducing caladiums to the US, and building close relationships with Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harry Firestone and David Fairchild.