Rosalie Meyer Stern papers, 1867-1996

Summary

Creators:

Stern, Rosalie Meyer, 1869-1956

Abstract:

This collection is primarily comprised of correspondence and ephemera documenting Rosalie Meyer Stern's familial and social life. Also included are diaries, biographical and genealogical material relating to Stern's maternal and paternal relations, newsclippings, some materials on Rosalie’s paternal uncle, Leon Zadoc-Kahn, the Grand Rabbi of France, and photographs. Most of the collection centers on Rosalie Meyer Stern’s life as a daughter, sister, cousin, mother, and grandmother. There is relatively little material relating to her role as a civic leader.

Extent:

Number of containers: 5 cartons, 1 oversize box, and 1 oversize folder (Linear feet: 5.4)

Language:

Collection materials are in English, French, German, and Hebrew.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection is primarily comprised of correspondence and ephemera documenting Rosalie Meyer Stern's familial and social life. Also included are diaries, biographical and genealogical material relating to Stern's maternal and paternal relations, newsclippings, some materials on Rosalie’s paternal uncle, Leon Zadoc Kahn, the Grand Rabbi of France, and photographs. Most of the collection centers on Rosalie Meyer Stern’s life as a daughter, sister, cousin, mother, and grandmother. There is relatively little material relating to her role as a civic leader.

Correspondence, the largest series in the collection, offers insight into the experience of Rosalie Meyer Stern as well as the lives of multiple generations of her extended family (including the Meyers, the Sterns, the Haases, and the Newmarks). Rosalie Meyer Stern's incoming correspondence constitutes the bulk of the correspondence series and dates from 1878 through 1955. The majority of the letters were written by family members to Rosalie between 1880 and 1930. While many of the letters were penned from Los Angeles, there are also those that were written by relatives living in San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, and France, and some travel letters from various parts of the United States and from abroad. There are letters from or about Rosalie’s paternal aunt and uncle, Ernestine and Leon Zadoc Kahn, the Grand Rabbi of France, Judah Magnes, Felix Frankfurter, Florence Prag Kahn, Justice Brandeis, Michael Stein (Gertrude’s brother), and Levi Strauss. There is extensive correspondence from Rosalie’s parents, Eugene and Harriet Newmark Meyer; Rosalie’s brothers, Eugene, Jr. (an appointed government official and owner of the Washington Post), Walter (an investment banker), and Edgar (who died on the Titanic); and her sisters, Elise (who first married Abraham Stern, Sigmund’ s brother, and later married De Souza Dantes), Florence (a philanthropist married to George Blumenthal), Ruth (Mrs. George Cook), and Aline (Mrs. Charles Liebman). There is also a fair amount of correspondence from and to Rosalie’s daughter and son-in-law, Elise Stern and Walter Haas. In the Special Family Correspondence subseries is an especially notable 1867 letter from Rosa Newmark (Rosalie's grandmother) in Los Angeles, California to Sarah Newmark describing in detail Harriet Newmark's Los Angeles wedding, house, and trousseau.

The other major component of the collection is ephemera from Rosalie Meyer Stern's social life. These materials paint a picture of the social milieu in which the Meyer, Stern, and Haas families lived. There are invitations to weddings and other social events, calling and business cards, dance cards, ocean liner passenger lists, itineraries, as well as wills, lists of condolence senders, a few financial records, and information about clubs and societies.

Biographical / historical:

Rosalie Meyer Stern was a civic and social leader of San Francisco. In 1892, she married Sigmund Stern, the president of Levi Strauss and Company. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, Stern converted her house into a Red Cross factory. During World War I, she became the first woman associate field director for military relief in the West; worked with the Red Cross at Camp Fremont Base Hospital; helped furnish troops with supplies; and collected money. In 1917, she served on the Garden Committee of the San Francisco Park and Recreation Department; in 1918, she formed the Garden Hospital Committee for the United States Veterans Hospital Number 24; and in 1919 she was appointed the president of the San Francisco Playground Commission. Stern also bought land that was scheduled for urban development and gave it to the city of San Francisco for the establishment of Sigmund Stern Grove, as a memorial to her husband and helped form a committee to underwrite free summer concerts held in the Grove. She also organized the San Francisco Junior Symphony and was a founder of the San Francisco Opera Association. She held board positions on the board of the World War I Fatherless Children of France (and received the Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur from France in 1938); Associated Jewish Charities; Pioneer Kindergarten Society and Children's Agency; Community Chest; and the Women's Board of the San Francisco Museum of Art. She funded construction of Stern Hall, at the University of California, Berkeley; took an active interest in forty-eight scholarships that were established at the University of California, Berkeley by Levi Strauss and Company; and served on the Entertainment Committee for the World's Fair that was held on Treasure Island (1939-1940). She also served on committees of the War Relief Fund and of the National Recreation Association, in addition to being an honorary member of the California Recreation Society.

Chronology

Date	Event
1861	Eugene Meyer immigrates to Los Angeles from Strasbourg, France.
1867	Meyer marries Harriet Newmark.
1869	Rosalie Meyer is born.
1871-1884	Eugene and Harriet add four daughters and three sons to their family.
1883	Eugene accepts a position at the London, Paris and American Bank. The family relocates to San Francisco.
1891	Rosalie is engaged to Emil Greenebaum but breaks engagement at the request of her father.
1891-1892	Rosalie travels to Paris with Eugene and sister, Elise. Meets Sigmund Stern.
1892	Marries Sigmund Stern.
1893	Gives birth to daughter, Elise.
1895	Eugene Meyer accepts partnership with Lazard Freres and relocates Harriet and Rosalie’s siblings to New York City.
1900	Rosalie and Sigmund build a house on Pacific Street in San Francisco.
1906	Rosalie and Sigmund purchase land in Atherton for a summer home.
1914	Elise marries Walter Haas. Rosalie enrolls in Jessica Peixotto’s American History class at the University of California, Berkeley.
1916	Elise gives birth to Walter Haas, Jr., Rosalie’s first grandchild.
1917	Rosalie joins boards of the Pioneer Kindergarten Society and the Children’s Agency.
1918	Rosalie appointed Associate Field Director of Military Relief for the American Red Cross. Peter Haas is born.
1919	Rosalie appointed to San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Commission.
1925	Rhoda Haas is born.
1928	Sigmund dies of cancer.
1931	Rosalie purchases a tract of land, later named the Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove, and donates it to the City.
1939	Elise is appointed president of the board of Mt. Zion Hospital.
1955	Elise is appointed as trustee of the Museum of Modern Art.
1956	Rosalie dies.
1964	Elise is elected as president of the board of the Museum of Modern Art.
1990	Elise dies.

Acquisition information:

The Rosalie Meyer Stern papers were gifted to The Bancroft Library by the Judah L. Magnes Museum in 2010.

Physical location:

Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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