University of Chicago Library Guide to the Julius Rosenwald Papers 1905-1963 © 2009 University of Chicago Library Table of Contents Descriptive Summary 3 Information on Use 3 Access 3 Citation 3 Biographical Note 3 Scope Note 6 Related Resources 7 Subject Headings 7 INVENTORY 8 Series I: Subject Files 8 Series II: Notebooks 73 Subseries 1: Biographical Notebooks 74 Subseries 2: Springfield Notebooks 74 Subseries 3: Chronological Notebooks 75 Subseries 4: Index and Digest Notebooks 78 Subseries 5: Subject Index Notebooks 79 Series III: Addenda 81 Subseries 1: Julius Rosenwald Fund 81 Sub-subseries 1: Reports for the following meetings held by the Julius Rosenwald81 Fund Sub-subseries 2: Internal reports submitted for the information of the Trustees,84 concerning the Fund’s activities Sub-subseries 3: Reports of suggestions submitted to the Trustees for consideration84 Subseries 2: Correspondence; Miscellany 85 Subseries 3: Correspondence; Tributes 86 Series IV: Scrapbooks 87 Descriptive Summary Identifier ICU.SPCL.ROSENWALDJ Title Rosenwald, Julius. Papers Date 1905-1963 Size 35 linear feet (62 boxes, 16 scrapbooks) Repository Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A. Abstract Julius Rosenwald, businessman and philanthropist. The papers of Julius Rosenwald contain correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, memorabilia, and a 1963 Rosenwald family tree. The collection documents Rosenwald's deep sense of social responsibility and commitment to philanthropic and civic endeavors, in particular his support of rural schools for African Americans, higher education, Jewish charities, and medical care. The collection also includes reports and minutes of the Julius Rosenwald Fund (1928-1933) and sixteen scrapbooks containing correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia that reflect Rosenwald's progressive reform activities, including support for the Tuskegee Institute, Howard University, World War I relief efforts in Illinois, and early development of the NAACP. Information on Use Access The collection is open for research. Citation When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Julius Rosenwald. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library Biographical Note Julius Rosenwald was born on August 12, 1862, to Samuel and Augusta Rosenwald, both Jewish immigrants, in Springfield, Illinois. Rosenwald was educated in the public schools in Springfield, and in 1879 he began his business career with Hammerslough Brothers, wholesale clothiers in New York City. 3 In 1885, Rosenwald came to Chicago to become president of Rosenwald & Weil, a retail men’s clothing store. After Sears, Roebuck & Company moved its headquarters to Chicago in 1893, Rosenwald was asked to become its vice president. He served Sears, Roebuck successively as vice president (1895-1910), president (1910-1925), and chairman of the board (1925-1932). Under his leadership, Sears developed its lucrative nationwide mail-order business, established savings and profit-sharing plans for employees, and became America’s largest retailer. On April 8, 1890, Rosenwald married Augusta Nusbaum of Chicago; the couple had five children. Rosenwald died on January 6, 1932. Rosenwald’s success as a businessman and executive was matched by his many accomplishments as an influential philanthropist and humanitarian. He played a leading role in many progressive social reform organizations in Chicago and became the first president of the combined Jewish Charities of Chicago. In 1917, he created the Julius Rosenwald Fund to support the “well-being of mankind.” He supported the work of Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute and established YMCAs and YWCAs to serve African American communities in cities across the United States. He funded the creation of thousands of schools for rural African Americans in the South. He contributed $6 million to support Russian Jews settling in southern Russia and Palestine. He established one of the first urban housing projects on Chicago’s South Side, and he founded the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Rosenwald summarized his philosophy of philanthropy quite simply: “What I want to do is try and cure the things that seem wrong.” He set out on this task with abundant wealth derived from his leadership of Sears, Roebuck & Company, a strong social conscience, and the practical zeal and organizing ability of an eminently successful American businessman. The things Rosenwald saw as wrong in American society were many and varied, but he focused his prime interest on African Americans support for education and research, medical care, better government, and support for Jewish charities and institutions. Rosenwald’s career as a public benefactor extended over three decades and was carried on after his death by the Rosenwald Fund. The termination of the activities of the Rosenwald Fund in 1948 was planned by Rosenwald before he died, since he felt strongly that each generation must accept responsibility for the problems of its own time. Throughout this vast body of papers are found records of the beginnings and the subsequent implementation of the many causes that Julius Rosenwald championed. Rosenwald consistently sought the advice and counsel of many informed public figures. He corresponded with Jane Addams, Booker T. Washington, Mary McDowell, Abraham Flexner, Herbert Hoover, Felix Frankfurter, and many others. But of equal interest and importance are the informative letters of minor figures who wrote to Rosenwald either to solicit his assistance or to give him guidance. This correspondence is arranged under a lengthy array of names of organizations that illustrate the scope of Rosenwald’s involvement and the potential use of his papers as a primary historical source: American Civic Association, Atlanta School of Social Work, Belgian Relief 4 Fund, Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency, Georgia Commission on Interracial Cooperation, Conference of Jewish Social Workers, Family Welfare Association, Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Illinois Society for Mental Health, Immigrants Protective League, Voluntary Parenthood League, among many others. Of course, the amount of documentation under each of these names varies with the degree of Rosenwald’s interest and commitment. The papers bear the stamp of the man, the methods he used in dispensing some sixty million dollars of his fortune, and the goals that he hoped this money would attain. He applied his philanthropy to pioneering efforts in order to stimulate action and eventual responsibility by those more directly concerned. The fundamental social problems of a burgeoning urban population are the central theme of many of his activities, and consequently he supported agencies and groups that worked on such problems as birth control, old age security, the training of social workers, and juvenile delinquency. The record of Rosenwald’s involvement with social problems, reflecting both his attitudes and the needs presented by individuals and organizations, offers a unique historical perspective of social conditions. The data sent to Rosenwald in support of requests is of interest, especially when it is accompanied by the personal views and evaluations of keen observers of the social scene. Yet many of the individual pieces of correspondence or memoranda are often less than dramatic. Most of what was written is matter-of-fact and unadorned. Rosenwald handled these requests efficiently through aides and occasionally by himself since, as he once commented, he found giving away money much more difficult than accumulation. Included in the correspondence is the internal exchange of commentary and instructions that flowed between Rosenwald and the men who helped him reach his decisions. Concern for justice was the essence of Rosenwald’s great interest in African Americans. This interest began shortly before the first World War when he met Booker T. Washington and became a trustee of the Tuskegee Institute. While best known for his assistance African American rural education in the South, he devoted many of his benefactions to the problems of African American health and working conditions through such organizations as: the Urban League, the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the project that, he said, gave him greater personal satisfaction than all his other philanthropies, the building of African American Y.M.C.A.’s. The record of Rosenwald’s search for an understanding of African American life and his attempt to apply his resources to solving social problems makes these papers a particularly illuminating source. He explained his emphasis on aid to African American education quite simply when he said that while white colleges might expect continually growing support, “[so] very few persons are interested in the education of the Negro that I have deemed it wiser to concentrate my efforts in that direction.” Beyond his aid to the socially marginalized, Rosenwald had a strong sense of the needs of scholarship and learning. The University of Chicago was the recipient of the largest portion of his gifts to higher education, yet he also gave sizable gifts to Harvard University, characteristically including money for publication fund and research assistance for Professor Felix Frankfurter. Among his many contributions to the University