Florence Marx Ross Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Florence Marx Ross Collection largely consists of the personal correspondence of Florence Marx to her parents from 1913-1914. In addition, the collection includes her diaries from this time, correspondence to or from others, newspaper clippings, photographs and a few publications.
Florence Marx's sixteen months abroad are the primary topic of the collection. Her daily undertakings, including descriptions of places she visited, social activities and visits with family are recorded in her diaries, found in Series II, as well as in her frequent letters home to her parents and brother, in Series I. The letters often provide more detail than the shorter descriptions of her diaries and offer plentiful information on fashion, dressmaking, cuisine and entertainment options of the time. Diary entries and a few letters dating from August 1914 and later mention the beginning of World War I and its effects on Florence and her European family members.
Newspaper clippings in Series II include an interview of her for a Chicago paper on her experiences during the attack on Charleroi, Belgium, while a few responses to the interview will be found in the correspondence of Series I. Postcards that depict places she visited in Europe are also part of Series II, as are publications on Belgium. Series II additionally holds some small photographs and Belgian identification papers for Florence Marx.
Dates
- 1913-1927
- Majority of material found within 1913-1914
Creator
- Ross, Florence Marx (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is primarily in English with some German and French.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Readers may access the collection by visiting the Lillian Goldman Reading Room at the Center for Jewish History. We recommend reserving the collection in advance; please visit the LBI Online Catalog and click on the "Reserve" button.
Use Restrictions
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org
Biographical Note
Florence Marx was the daughter and eldest child of Simon Marx of Chicago (originally of Siegelsbach, Germany) and his first wife Alice née Sanders. Florence had a younger brother named Sidney. On July 10, 1913 she left her home in Chicago to visit her aunts and uncles in Belgium and Germany. She spent a little over a year abroad, with much of her time spent traveling in Belgium, France and Germany, as well as several months attending a boarding school in Brussels in order to improve her French along with her sewing and music skills.
At the end of August 1914 Florence Marx was in Charleroi, Belgium, with her aunt and uncle just as the town was attacked and occupied by German forces in the early days of World War I. She and her family fled to Brussels; Florence Marx returned to the United States on November 1, 1914. She married Bernard Ross.
Extent
0.5 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection centers on the experiences of Florence Marx Ross during a trip to Belgium, France and Germany from July 1913-November 1914, documented in her frequent correspondence to her family, daily diary entries, and newspaper clippings. In addition, the collection holds a number of postcards, some photographs and publications related to the beginning of World War I in Belgium.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in two series:
Digitization Note
The collection was digitized and made accessible in its entirety.
Separated Material
An issue of National Geographic Magazine without any notations was removed from the final folder of the collection, with a copy made of the title page.
Processing Information
The collection was reprocessed in September 2013. At this time, similar materials were brought together to form series, the correspondence was organized chronologically and several folders were retitled to more accurately reflect their contents.
- Bad Godesberg (Bonn, Germany)
- Bad Wimpfen (Germany)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Blankenberge (Belgium)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Charleroi (Belgium)
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Diaries
- Jewish families
- Marx family
- Official documents
- Paris (France)
- Personal correspondence
- Photographs
- Postcards
- Publications (documents)
- Ross, Florence Marx
- Travel
- Women -- Education
- Women -- Social life -- 1910-1920.
- Women's clothing
- World War, 1914-1918
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Belgium
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of Florence Marx Ross 1913-1927 AR 10606
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Dianne Ritchey
- Date
- © 2013
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- Digitization was made possible by the Conference for Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from FlorenceMarxRoss.xml
Revision Statements
- June 2015: dao links and digitization information added by Leanora Lange.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
