Subject Guide: American West

The Diary of Sigmund A. Heilner 1859-1861 [Digitized and available online]

Published diary concerning immigrant life in American West (1859-1861). Also included are two photocopied articles about Sigmund Heilner in 'The Jews of Oregon' and in Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly, 1979.

Ray Frank Litman (1861-1948) Papers, P-46 [Digitized and available online]

This collection contains the professional and personal papers of Ray Frank, sometimes referred to as “the first woman rabbi.” Although she was never ordained and disliked the title, contemporary American Jewish feminists often cite her as a predecessor of today's female rabbis. It contains articles written by Frank when she was a journalist as well as numerous newspaper clippings detailing her travels and lectures at synagogues around the U.S.  and her role as a female preacher. Valuable to researchers of history of Jews of California, Illinois, and the Pacific Northwest.

Sylvan M. Dubow collection on Otto Mears, P-781

This collection contains research Sylvan Dubow accumulated for an article on Otto Mears. In addition to articles and an obituary on Mears, Mears' military service and pension record is available. Copies of archival documents include annual reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1873, 1879-1882), an annual report the Secretary of War (1880), documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (1882-1883), an official compilation of the Navajo Campaign in New Mexico (1889), and the incorporation papers for the Chesapeake Railway Company. Additional material consists of Dubow's correspondence and notes concerning his research, his article "Simon Wolf: Champion of the American Jewish Fighting Men," and articles regarding a California War Paper (1861), the general and Jewish history of Colorado and New Mexico, and the Civil War in the Southwest.

Oberfelder Family Collection, 1999, AR 11062. [Digitized and available online]

The collection contains items documenting the Oberfelder family of Sidney, Nebraska, and their family business there. Included is an essay by Robert S. Obefelder about his arrival in Sidney, the founding of the family's store, and buying and selling land near Sidney; article by Joseph Oberfelder about irrigation in Cheyenne County, Nebraska; certificate of admission to the bar for Joseph Oberfelder; clippings about the Oberfelder business; and family tree.

Gerhart Friedlander Collection, AR 11827 [Digitized and available online]

This collection largely consists of material from Gerhart Friedlanders' academic career at University of California, Berkeley, as well as materials about the Friedlander family villa in Munich. Friedlaender was born in 1916 in Munich, Germany and immigrated alone to the U.S. in 1936. He was awarded a Hillel Foundation scholarship in 1937, which allowed him to start his education, leading to a doctorate from the University of California in Berkeley. He participated in the Manhattan project to develop the atomic bomb. In 2006 Gerhart Friedlander was an adviser to the Stories to Remember project about courts of law under Nazi rule. 

Records of the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (Denver, Colo.), I-333

In the mid-19th century, many physicians in the U.S. had begun recommending that their patients leave crowded East coast cities and go to Colorado, which had cleaner air, a high altitude, and a sunny, dry climate. Denver soon earned the nickname the "world's sanatorium" due to the hundreds of patients in the city. In 1899, the Jewish community of Denver opened the first hospital in Denver for tuberculosis victims, the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives, funded largely by more modernized German Reform Jews. The hospital was non-sectarian, discouraged the use of Yiddish and did not provide kosher food, making it difficult for Orthodox Jews to observe Jewish holidays.

In 1904, a small group of Eastern European immigrant working men founded the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) in the western part of Denver, Colorado as a non-sectarian sanatorium to treat tuberculosis patients in all stages of the disease, free of charge and in a more observantly Jewish environment. The sanitorium offered only kosher food and all of the Jewish holidays were observed.

Alaska Project Collection, AR 11865

This collection contains documents pertaining to a project, spearheaded by the Conference on Jewish Relations in the United States, to establish a large colony of Jewish refugees in Alaska. Included are: German and American newspaper clippings (1938-1939) with announcements of new restrictive laws regarding the assets of Jews; followed by reports, meeting minutes and correspondence regarding the possibility of Alaska as a potential site for large scale resettlement of refugees.

Judith Endelman Summer Camp Collection, P-987

This collection contains yearbooks, handbooks, letterhead, newsletters, and rosters for Jewish youth camps in California from 1956 to 1968, including materials from Camp Saratoga located in Santa Clara County, California. Also known as Camp Swig, the facility continues to operate in conjunction with the Union for Reform Judaism.

HIAS History—Jewish Agricultural Colony at Cotopaxi, Colorado, 1883–1884, 2005–2010 [Off-site, needs to be requested in advance]

Includes Flora Jane Satt thesis, "The Cotopaxi Colony"

New Mexico Jews, Jewish New Mexicans, AR 10170 [Digitized and available online]

Manuscript by Gordon Bronitsky about the history of Jewish settlement in New Mexico