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Kramer, Leon, 1889-1962.Papers, 1874-1964.UWM Manuscript Collection 1832.8 cubic ft. (2 record center cartons, and 1 oversize box) |
The political ephemera in the collection includes meeting announcements, party and union memberships, as well as photographs and postcards from political organizations such as the United States Socialist Party, the International Socialist Party, the Communist Party, Workers Parties, and union organizations. The remainder of the collection consists of educational materials produced by workers' education organizations in the 1920s and 1930s.
ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law. However, the researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).
SCOPE AND CONTENT: The collection contains papers, photographs, and ephemera relating to the business and political interests of Russian-born, New York bookseller, Leon Kramer. The collection contains two series:
Series 1: Business Files
Series 2: Political Files
Series 1: The bulk of the Business Files contain material from the period 1930-1960, related to Leon Kramer's work as a bookseller. This series contains booklists, correspondence, catalogues, and photographs of the Kramer family from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s. The correspondence largely concerns orders and purchases made by librarians at various American Universities, including Dartmouth College, Duke University, the University of California--Berkeley, the University of Chicago, the University of Florida, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Texas. Other correspondence includes letters Kramer sent to the American writer Waldo Frank, and the American critic and novelist Edmund Wilson.
The collection also contains catalogues produced by used and antiquarian booksellers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Included also are a small amount of miscellaneous book trade ephemera dating from roughly 1920 to 1960.
Series 2: The bulk of the Political Files contains material from 1870-1960. This series documents Kramer's political interests and contains miscellaneous political ephemera from the following political parties and organizations: the Communist Party of the United States of America, the Communist Youth International, the International Communist League, the International Socialist Party, the National Council for the Prevention of War, the Socialist Party of United States, the War Resister's League, and the Workers Party. The series also includes: certificates of affiliations, correspondences, educational materials, essays on strikes, Stalinism and Communist factionalisms, photographs of Norman Thomas and other Socialist Party leaders, political cartoons, postcards, reports, and resolutions.
The educational materials in this series is comprised of annual reports, newspaper clippings, reading material, syllabi, and teaching material from the Brookwood School, the Communist Party United States of America, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the Jefferson School of Social Science, and the Workers School.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Born in 1899 Leon Kramer was an idealist, philosophical anarchist, and bookseller, who began his radical career in the town of Godorok, near Minsk, Russia. He made speeches in an effort to organize local workers. In 1904, at the age of 15, he was arrested for his political activities, jailed in Minsk, and then sent to Siberia. The five years Kramer spent in Siberia served not as a cure, but as a confirmation of his political beliefs.
Kramer came to the United States in 1913, at first living with relatives in Boston and finally moving to New York around 1929. He initially worked as a subscription salesman for the anarchist publication, Freie Arbeiter-Stimme (Free Voice of Labor); however still interested in social problems and their potential political solutions, he began avidly collecting radical literature. He quickly became known by radicals, booksellers, and book collectors as a specialist in his field. His career as a bookseller began with him buying and selling duplicate copies of books in his own collection. By 1930, he was working full-time as a rare book dealer specializing in the fields of economics, social sciences, and radical literature.
Kramer issued his first catalogue in 1934, by which time he had also opened a store in his New York apartment. Kramer ran the business and continued to issue catalogues until the year of his death, 1962. After Kramer died, his daughter Jean Kramer ran the business until 1964.
COLLECTION CITATION: This collection should be cited as:
Kramer, Leon, 1889-1962. Papers, 1874-1964. UWM Manuscript Collection 183. University Manuscript Collection. Archives. UWM Libraries. University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
RELATED COLLECTION:
Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor (Mary Eleanor), 1877-1955. Papers, 1905-1974. (UWM Manuscript Collection 13)
ACQUISITION: The collection was acquired from the University of Wisconsin--Green Bay in 1997 (accession number 2001-115).
PROCESSING: Gareth Evans processed the collection in June 2002. Karen Bjork completed the finding aid in 2003.
MARC RECORD SEARCH TERMS: The following terms were used in the online bibliographic MARC record to this collection:
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URL: http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/arch/findaids/uwmmss183.htm
Last edited on Thursday, March 18, 2004.
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