Hannah G. Solomon

A Register of Her Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Margaret McAleer with the assistance of John Monagle

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2000

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2007

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms007027

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Personal Names

Organizations

Subjects

Occupations

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Copyright Status:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement of the Papers

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Hannah G. Solomon, civic leader and founder of the National Council of Jewish Women, were given to the Library of Congress by her granddaughter, Frances Levy Angel, in 1993.

The papers of Hannah G. Solomon were processed in 1996. Additional material consisting primarily of birthday greetings and National Council of Jewish Women committee and department records was incorporated into the collection in 2000. A description of the Solomon Papers appears in Library of Congress Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1993, pp. 18-26.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Hannah G. Solomon is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Hannah G. Solomon Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of club woman and social reformer Hannah Greenebaum Solomon (1858-1942) span the years 1817-1986, with the bulk of the material dating from 1892 to 1942. The collection largely concerns Solomon's founding of the National Council of Jewish Women and complements the records of the council's national and Washington, D.C., offices, also held by the Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Solomon’s papers contain correspondence, organizational records, speeches and writings, biographical information, genealogical material, family papers, photographs, a scrapbook, and printed matter arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material.

A number of items relate to the founding of the National Council of Jewish Women at the Jewish Women's Congress convened in 1893 as part of the World's Parliament of Religions during the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Included is correspondence from Solomon's chairmanship of the congress's organizing committee, papers delivered at the congress, an attendance register, and drafts of a resolution calling for the establishment of a national organization of Jewish women. The first five decades of the National Council of Jewish Women are recorded through convention proceedings, reports, and printed matter. Committee and department records document many of the organization’s activities, including those related to community welfare, contemporary Jewish affairs, education, immigrant and refugee assistance, international relations, and social legislation.

Perhaps the most revealing source on the council's early years is correspondence from and concerning Sadie American, the organization's first secretary. Written largely by American to Solomon, the correspondence concerns the establishment of local sections and the development of a national program. It also reveals a rift between the two women, in part over the focus of the council's work, and exposes tensions within the organization which eventually led to the secession of several local chapters.

Drafts and fragments of Solomon's speeches and writings fill a gap caused by the paucity of Solomon's outgoing correspondence in the papers. They cover a wide variety of subjects, including the council's programs and history, the growth of women's organizations, and the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany.

The papers contain limited amounts of material on Solomon's life beyond the National Council of Jewish Women. A small number of reports and printed items relate to her involvement in other civic and women's organizations, notably the Park Ridge School for Girls in Illinois and the Chicago Woman's Club. A European trip made by Solomon and her family in 1904 to attend the International Council of Women in Berlin and to celebrate the Solomons' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary is documented by photographs and a scrapbook. Handbills and other election ephemera are included from her two unsuccessful campaigns for trustee of the University of Illinois. Biographical information is also contained in clippings, personal sketches, eulogies, plays based on her life, and genealogies.

Arrangement of the Papers

This collection is arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material.

Container List