Edith and Herbert Feist Family Collection

This collection contains materials relating to Edith and Herbert Feist and family.

Personal and professional materials from Edith and Herbert include courtship correspondence in the early 1930s, other correspondence, and wedding and immigration materials. Herbert Feist's professional materials relate to his work in Germany as a sketch artist, primarily for magazines about radio, as well as some papers concerning his businesses in the United States, primarily his art gallery. Some material about his painting career in the United States, such as correspondence with artist organizations, printed material, and some photographs, is also included. A handwritten diary of Feist's musical performances, primarily in a string quartet, is also found here. Written in German and English, it contains notes on performances, sketches, and photos.

This collection also contains materials about the Feist's relatives. Herbert's maternal grandfather, Max Herschel, a leader in the Jewish community of Bonn, was a writer and translator. Materials here include manuscript and printed poems and translations (religious and secular), as well as other papers. Personal papers relating to Herbert's parents Walter and Auguste Feist, such as wedding materials and correspondence, as well as two handwritten cookbooks from Auguste Feist, are also found in this collection.

Items from and about Edith Feist's family, the Silbersteins and Gruenthals, relate to Edith's mother, aunt, and uncle: Nelly Gruenthal (née Silberstein), Alice Fink (née Silberstein), and Arthur Silberstein (who changed his surname to Stein in the United States). Arthur managed to survive the war in Berlin, and materials include his Arbeitsbuch (employment record) for 1940-1945. Other items in this folder include vital documents and passports, and a variety of personal papers. The collection includes a few items relating to Herbert's twin brother, Hellmut, who was murdered during the Holocaust.

Older and genealogical materials include marriage contracts for ancestors David Cohn (1849) and Shlomo Zvi ben Rav Moshe (1834), and genealogical research notes, correspondence, and tables about the Feist, Herschel, Firnheim-Schloss, Gruenthal, Herschel-Wolffberg, and Otterbach-Kaemmerer families.

Finally, the collection includes a wide variety of photographs of the Feists and their family, including posed card-mounted photographs, more informal silver gelatin prints, and a variety of albums.