United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources

Contains the personal papers, including correspondence and documents, of Elijah Etting, his sons, Solomon and Reuben, and his three grandchildren, Samuel Etting, Kitty (Etting) Cohen, and Elijah Gratz Etting (frequently referred to as Gratz Etting).

Originally from England, the Franks family were colonial merchants who settled in New York City in the 1700s. This collection documents parts of their life through correspondence, legal documents, and financial records. The correspondence is primarily written by Abigail Franks in New York to her son, Naphtali, in England. Also included in the collection are the notes and correspondence of Dr. Leo Hershkowitz, who co-edited a book on the letters of the family entitled the Lee Max Friedman Collection of American Jewish Colonial Correspondence: Letters of the Franks Family (1733-1748), written with Isadore S. Meyer in 1968.

This collection contains a letter (undated, but of the year 1790), signed by Philip Hart and Jacob Cohen, officers of the Congregation, congratulating George Washington on assuming the office of President of the U.S. The letter was probably sent to Cong. Shearith Israel in New York in an effort to submit a joint communication on behalf of the six Jewish congregations in the United States at the time, but it was not the one eventually presented to Washington.