Ellen Schultheis Kelley had looked halfway around the world for a museum to house a collection of artifacts from her great-great-great-grandfather, German poet and patriot Ernst Moritz Arndt.

It turns out the best place for the collection wasn’t in Germany — it was nearly in her own back yard, at Kansas University.

Kelley and her husband, Grant, on Monday were honored with a reception for donating the letters and other items, worth $1 million, to KU’s Max Kade Center for German-American Studies.

“We understand the importance of keeping the Arndt legacy alive,” she said.

Arndt, who lived from 1769 to 1860, advocated German independence from France and was an opponent to Napoleon I. He was forced to flee Germany because of his writings.

The collection given to KU includes 45 letters from Arndt and his family, a photo album with 19th-century portraits, monogrammed silverware, a pocket telescope and Arndt’s stamp for wax-sealing letters.

Kelley, who lives in Lake Quivira, said various family members had collected the items over the years. She said they didn’t mean much without the insight of German scholars.

“The thing you don’t ever want to have happen is to stick some silver spoons in a garage sale for $5,” she said. “It was important for this to be part of a global effort.”

The Kelleys made a trip to Bonn University, where Arndt’s home has been turned into a museum, to discuss donating the materials there.

But while searching on the Internet after the trip, they found the name of William Keel, chairman of KU’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and decided to donate the materials there.

Keel said a German society was interested in publishing the letters in the collection.

“I’d assume on the face of it there is no other collection like this,” he said.