Gertrude Weil (1879-1971) Papers, PC.1488
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Gertrude Weil (1879-1971) Papers
- Call Number
- PC.1488
- Creator
- Weil, Gertrude, 1879-1971
- Date
- 1856-1971
- Repository
- State Archives of North Carolina
Collection Overview
Papers of Gertrude Weil, suffragist, humanitarian, civil and religious leader, daughter of Mina Rosenthal and Henry Weil of Goldsboro, including 6,000 family letters, two thirds to or from the Weil children during college years-Lionel and Herman at UNC (1891-1895, 1897-1901); Gertrude at Horace Mann School, New York City, and Smith College (1895-1901); Janet (later Mrs. Herbert Bleuthenthal) at N.C. State Normal and Industrial College (UNC-Greensboro) and Smith College (1908-1914), describing studies and sports, social, and cultural activities. Many letters are from Mina Weil to her children and from the grandparents, Jacob and Yetta Weil of Baltimore (in Yiddish) and Eva and Emil Rosenthal of Wilson to their children. Travel letters are from Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893; six-month tour of Europe, 1895-1896; Mexico, 1907; Mediterranean ports, 1909; Cincinnati, 1910; western North Carolina (Boone and Blowing Rock) and Canal Zone, 1913; and England, 1934. Life of a single woman of modest means is revealed in letters spanning thirty-five years from Harriet L. Payne (Vassar, 1903), including service as a WWI Red Cross worker in France. Other correspondents include Edwin A. Alderman, Mary Pearsall Berenson, Annie Kizer Bost, Martha G. Boswell, Olive D. Campbell, Mary Grace Canfield, Thurmond Chatham, Albert Coates, Sallie Southall Cotten, Josephus Daniels, Harriet W. Elliott, Harry L. Golden, Edward K. Graham, Frank Porter Graham, Harriet Herring, Mary Mendenhall Hobbs, Mrs. Samuel Jacobs, Louis Jaffe, Victor Jelenko, Kate Burr Johnson, Charles Raper Jonas, Dr. George H. Kirby, Nell Battle Lewis, Laura Holmes Reilly, Elias E. Ries, W. Kerr Scott, Rabbi Abraham Shinedling, Arthur L. Stearns, Gladys A. Tillett. Also WWI letters from Wayne Co. servicemen collected for the N.C. Historical Commission. N.C. Equal Suffrage Association papers, 1914-1920, include letters from president Gertrude Weil, other suffragists, and many prominent men in support of ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, 1920. Also reports, minutes, publications, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, ribbons, photographs. Similar material from National American Suffrage Association, 1911-1920, with many booklets and speeches. Correspondents on suffrage include Barbara Henderson, Walter Clark, A. W. McLean, Mrs. William A. Graham, W. O. Saunders, Cornelia P. Jerman, Carrie Chapman Catt, Josephus Daniels, L. B. McBrayer, Zebulon Weaver, Clyde R. Hoey, Collier Cobb, J. C. B. Ehringhaus, and C. W. Tillett, Jr. Material on Jewish relief efforts by Weil family through personal and organizational channels beginning in 1920 includes correspondence from friends and family in Austria, France, England, and Germany, some letters in Yiddish or German. Letters of the 1930s from Oettinger relatives in Frankfort, Nuremburg, Paris, and London depict plight of Jews in Nazi Germany and contrast with letters from Henrietta Szold and Dr. Bernard Berger in Palestine (1938-1939). Organizational correspondence is with American Jewish Committee, Palestine Development Leagues, Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America, and letters from banks and government agencies concerning financial arrangements and legal requirements. Postwar letters from Emil Oettinger describe living conditions for an emigre in New York and comment on current events, 1946-1949. Also papers for the N.C. Association of Jewish Women founded by Mrs. Sol Weil in 1921; the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (1927-1955); and sabbath school literature, plays, and workbooks (1916-1959). Miscellaneous state level organizations with correspondence, minutes, literature include Charles B. Aycock Memorial Commission (1949-1971); League of Women Voters (1920-1933); Federation of Women's Clubs (1904-1957); Conference for Social Service, (1913-1964); Committee on Interracial Cooperation (1922-1947); Council on Human Relations (1949-1965); as well as their national and local organizational counterparts. Also National Council for the Prevention of War (1935); Family Welfare Association of America (1931-1933); Civil Liberties Union (1962-1967); Southern Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1929-1943); Women's Centennial Congress, (1940); Industrial Farm Colony for Women, Kinston (1934-1939); Mental Hygiene Society (1936-1939); Chautauqua Circle (1892-1895); and birth control organizations (1930s). Letters exchanged by Mina and Henry Weil, 1873-1876, are restricted.