National Farm School (Doylestown, Pa.)

A photocopy of Krauskopf's will; among the recipients of his bequest was the National Farm School.

Philip Cowen (1853-1943) was a Conservative Jew who grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Though he only studied for one year at the City College of New York, the literary-minded Cowen became the founder (with Rev. Dr. Frederic de Sola Mendes) and editor of the Conservative Jewish publication, the American Hebrew from its inception in 1879 until his resignation in 1906. In 1905, Cowen was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to the Ellis Island positions of Immigration Inspector on the Board of Special Inquiry, determining the fitness of émigrés to the United States, and later advanced to Inspector-In-Charge of the Division of Information for Employment and the Discharging and Information Division. In addition, Cowen was a member of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, was a founder of the The Judeans society, a secretary for B'nai B'rith, and published an autobiography entitled Memoirs of an American Jew (1932). Documents include writings and material on immigration, surveys of American leaders and intellectuals on Anti-Semitism, and background materials for articles written in the American Hebrew. The collection contains correspondence, articles, documents, official reports, telegrams, clippings, pamphlets, photographs, and handwritten notes.

The Baron de Hirsch Fund Records document the organization's involvement in the planning of agricultural communities across the United States and to some extent in South America; the founding and administrative dealings of agricultural and trade schools; the establishment of the Jewish Agricultural Society; and the business records of the Fund itself. In addition, the collection documents the protection offered to immigrants through port work, relief, temporary aid, promotion of suburban industrial enterprises and removal from urban centers through the Industrial Removal Office, land settlement, agricultural training, and trade and general education. In this respect, the collection is of major interest for Jewish genealogists as it documents a number of individual immigrants. In addition, the collection contains documentation on the administration and organization of the fund, documentation on Jewish farming colonies such as the Jewish Agricultural Society, Woodbine Colony and Agricultural School, and documentation on the Baron de Hirsch Trade School. In addition, the collection contains blueprints and photographs of facilities.

This collection contains correspondence (primarily 1951-1967) relating to finances and the activities of the School; mimeographed minutes of the meetings of the Board of Trustees (1952-1961); printed material relating to Founder's Day Convocations and Commencement Exercises; a copy of the charter and amended by-laws for the years 1952, 1959, and 1960; catalogues (1941-43, 1946-47, 1952-53, 1957-59); and annual reports (1902-1945).