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Ackman and Ziff Family Genealogy Institute
Abe Grubere Papers (YUM 01)
Abraham Gruber, who later changed his name to Abe Grubere, a designer in women's fashion, was born on November 25, 1899. He had a long and illustrious career as a coat and suit designer and worked as a consultant to many leading coat and suit manufacturers. From 1938 to 1945, he worked for Morris W. Haft & Bros., the country's largest manufacturer of women's and misses' coats and suits. During the same period Grubere was elected President of the Guild of Designers (1943) and also served on Mayor La Guardia's Committee on Creative Industry. The Abe Grubre collection documents the work of Abe Grubre (also known as Abraham Gruber), a New York City fashion designer, active in the field of fashion from the 1920s to the 1960s. The papers reflect the work of Grubre as a designer and also document his involvement with the Central High School for Needle Trades, where he helped to organize a class that was held at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in the summer of 1942. Although the bulk of the documents found in the collection consists of sketches, the collection also includes clippings, booklets, correspondence, financial documentation, and materials pertaining to Grubre's teaching activities.
CJH suggests that researchers also perform a simple search for "Abe Grubere" at search.cjh.org for additional digitized materials.
Klara Sander Collection (AR 4806) [Digitized]
Sander was a fashion and interior designer, and composer. This collection contains numerous essays (in the form of both published booklets and handwritten manuscripts) on various topics of clothes fashion and home interior design. There are also musical scores composed by Klara Sander.
Kurt Levin correspondence collection (AR 12017) [Digitized]
Kurt Levin was born in Krefeld on May 25, 1895. He escaped Nazi Germany together with his sister Ilse and her family most likely to England. In 1940 he was interred as an enemy alien in Australia. In 1946, he immigrated to the United States, where he dedicated himself to fashion photography.
Lucie Ritter Marcus Collection (AR 4393) [Digitized]
Lucie Ritter-Marcus was born in 1895 in Breslau, Germany (today Wroclaw, Poland). She studied art in Breslau and became a favorite pupil of the department. As such, she spent her summers in Heinrichau, a little village, with other skilled art students of Breslau, under the patronage of the Grand Duke of Sachsen-Weimar. In the Nazi period, she moved with her husband to New York, where she received a job as a fashion designer for Inez Gowns. This led her to more fashion design work in Los Angeles. The collection contains a biographical sketch of the artist Lucie Ritter Marcus, written by her husband Ernst Marcus; photographs of her paintings; and Ex Libris.
CJH suggests that researchers also perform a simple search for "Lucie Ritter Marcus" at search.cjh.org for additional digitized materials.
Ruth Rogers-Altmann Collection (AR 11944) [Digitized]
Ruth Lotte Rogers-Altmann nee Karplus (1917- ), fashion designer and artist, was born 1917 in Vienna (Austria). She also worked as a stylist at Herzmansky, Vienna’s largest department store. In May 1938 she immigrated to the United States, and in September 1938 she married Dr. Rogers. She became one of the leading ski and sports clothing designers in America, and also wrote for various fashion magazines. In New York she established her own consulting firm, and she launched Bloomingdale’s first skiwear center. In 1951 she established Ruth Rogers Enterprises (RRE), a management consulting service for apparel manufacturers, specializing in design and styling. This collection contains materials about fashion designer and artist Ruth Lotte Rogers-Altmann nee Karplus (1917- ). Documents found here include photocopies of professional materials and clippings relating to her career as a ski fashion designer, as well as some photographs.
Uwe Westphal Collection (AR 5528) [Digitized]
The collection represents Uwe Westphal’s research material for his book about the heydays and ultimate destruction of Berlin’s clothing and fashion industry, 1836-1939: ‘Berliner Konfektion und Mode : die Zerstoerung einer Tradition’.
A cultural history of Jewish dress / Eric Silverman. London, UK ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2013.
A girl named Carrie : the visionary who created Neiman Marcus and set the standard for fashion / Jerrie Marcus Smith ; with Allison V. Smith. Dallas, Texas : Cairn Press, 2021.
Broken threads : the destruction of the Jewish fashion industry in Germany and Austria / edited by Roberta S. Kremer. Oxford : Berg, 2007.
Fashioning Jews : clothing, culture, and commerce / editor, Leonard J. Greenspoon. West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University Press, 2013.
Fashion Metropolis Berlin 1836-1939 : the story of the rise and destruction of the Jewish fashion industry / Uwe Westphal ; translated by Kristine Jennings. Leipzig : Henschel, 2019.
From fashion to politics : Hadassah and Jewish American women in the post World War II era / Shirli Brautbar. Brighton, MA : Academic Studies Press, 2012.
Jews in the world of fashion / by Hazel Rabinowitz. New Brunswick, NJ : Jewish Historical Society of Central Jersey, 2001.