Title: Irma E. Hochstein Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1916-1965

Creator:

• Hochstein, Irma E., 1887-1974

Call Number: Mss 750

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Irma Hochstein consisting of subject files and incoming correspondence from friends and prominent Wisconsinites she met while a librarian at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library (1914-1925) and through involvement in women's political groups. Incomplete subject files including notes, draft writings, clippings, and additional correspondence document her research interest in the equal rights amendment, workmen's compensation, the career of Charles McCarthy, and other topics, as well as her involvement during the 1920's in the women's program at the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00750

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Librarian Irma E. Hochstein was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 10, 1887. She was educated there at the Kindergarten der Norwertseite, Humbolt School, West Division High School (1901), Mrs. Bayliss' School, the Milwaukee Art Student's League, and the F.W. Heine's Art School. In 1905 she matriculated at Milwaukee-Downer College where she spent her freshman and sophomore years. Hochstein then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, graduating in 1909 with a major in German and a minor in Latin.

After several years of teaching high school she returned to the University and received a library degree in 1914. As part of her library training, Hochstein took the legislative reference library course under Charles McCarthy. McCarthy's personality and philosophy had a profound impact upon her life and later when she returned to school to complete an M.A. in political science (1929), her thesis dealt with McCarthy's work in the areas of minimum wage, child labor, and apprenticeship legislation in Wisconsin.

Except for a brief leave during World War I to work for the Milwaukee County Council for Defense and the Wisconsin Fuel Administration, Hochstein worked in the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library from 1914 to 1925, rising from assistant cataloguer to chief reference librarian. In 1925 she became director of the Central Bureau of Information and Statistics at Marquette University. This position ended in 1930 due to lack of funding. Hochstein then moved to Washington, D.C. to accept a position as assistant secretary to the Women's National Trade Union League, an organization with which she had been prominently involved both in Madison and in Milwaukee. Funding for this position, which involved writing and editing the League's magazine and researching legislative issues of concern to women ended in 1932; Hochstein then returned to Milwaukee as a social worker. She remained in Milwaukee until 1942, holding various positions from case worker to director of women's work projects. In 1942 she returned to library work as chief reference librarian in the research and reference library section for the Selective Service System in Washington, D.C. under E. A. Fitzpatrick, a longtime friend. When the Selective Service System was terminated in 1947 Hochstein returned to Madison for a year as chief reference librarian at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. In 1948 she returned to Washington, D.C. as librarian at the National Security Resources Board. After her retirement Hochstein moved to the Milwaukee area.

Although the Irma Hochstein papers make up a small collection that reveals very little about her own interesting and varied career, researchers will find the collection to be of great interest. The reason for this apparent contradiction is that although Miss Hochstein failed to save copies of her own outgoing letters, her incoming correspondence constitutes a virtual Wisconsin who's who. In addition to the importance of the contacts, some of the correspondence is of even greater value, as it often contains personal comments and because many of the letters present are handwritten copies.

In addition to correspondence, the papers include some notes, draft writings, and clippings documenting various research projects. Unfortunately, these research files are rather incomplete. The Hochstein Papers are organized in three categories: biographical material, correspondence, and subject files.

The CORRESPONDENCE is further subdivided into two alphabetical files: a general category and a separate file for major correspondents for whom the volume of letters is extensive. Hochstein's circle of correspondents seems to have developed from acquaintances made while working at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library and from various women's political activities during the 1920's. The source of her acquaintance with some correspondents is not documented in the papers. Similar relationships from her later career are largely unrepresented. It is likely that in sorting her papers for shipment to the Historical Society, Miss Hochstein may have consciously omitted any such letters which existed on the assumption that they would not be of interest to researchers in Wisconsin.

Within the major correspondents file, Hochstein's most prominent correspondents include Elizabeth Christman, Zona Gale, Ada James, Belle Case La Follette, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Louis Lochner, Clifford Lord, Charles McCarthy, C. B. Whitnall, and E. E. Witte. Less well known figures in this file with whom she corresponded frequently include members of the McCarthy family and McCarthy's biographers, Elias Tobenkin, and Jennie M. Turner. The Turner correspondence, which primarily documents the period after she retired, is particularly extensive. Prominent in the general file are Sherwood Anderson, Meta Berger, Louis Brandeis, Marquis Childs, John R. Commons, Sir John Keane, H. L. Mencken, Olga Petrova, Sir Horace Plunkett, Jeannette Rankin, Mary Katherine Reely, Rose Schneiderman, Edward Steichen, and Irving Stone.

The SUBJECT FILES include notes, draft writings, clippings, and additional correspondence documenting Miss Hochstein's research interest in the equal rights amendment, workmen's compensation, the career of Charles McCarthy, and other topics, as well as her involvement during the 1920's in the women's program at the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Irma E. Hochstein, Washington, D.C., 1962-1968. Accession Number: M62-169, M62-144, M68-375

Processing Information

Processed by Robin A. Paynter and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1988.

Box   1 Folder   1	Series: Biographical Material
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
	General correspondence
Box   1 Folder   2-9	A-Z
Box   1 Folder   10	Unidentified
	Prominent correspondents
Box   1 Folder   11	Christman, Elizabeth, 1930-1934
Box   2 Folder   1	Gale, Zona, 1925-1930
Box   2 Folder   2	James, Ada, 1924-1952, undated
Box   2 Folder   3	La Follette family, 1921-1955
Box   2 Folder   4	Lochner, Louis, 1947-1961
Box   2 Folder   5	Lord, Clifford, 1946-1960
Box   2 Folder   6	McCarthy, Charles and family, 1916-1926
Box   2 Folder   7-9	Tobenkin, Elias, 1922-1948, undated
	Turner, Jennie M.
Box   2 Folder   10	1918-1933
Box   3 Folder   1-4	1941-1961, 1965, undated
Box   3 Folder   5	Apprenticeship materials, 1914-1922
Box   3 Folder   6	Campaign speeches in search of a candidate, 1950
Box   3 Folder   7	Wehle, Louis B., 1922-1929
Box   3 Folder   8	Whitnall, C. B., 1927-1949, undated
Box   3 Folder   9	Witte, E. E., 1921-1961
	Series: Subject Files	⇧
Box   4 Folder   1	Atomic bomb, 1945-1957
Box   4 Folder   2	Blacks in Washington, D.C., 1943-1947
Box   4 Folder   3	Child labor notes, undated
Box   4 Folder   4-6	Christmas cards, 1949, 1958, 1960
Box   4 Folder   7	Debt, 1943-1945
Box   4 Folder   8	Equal rights amendment research, 1954, undated
Box   4 Folder   9	Fitzpatrick, E. A., tributes and biographical information, 1929-1960
Box   4 Folder   10	Housing problems, 1943-1946
Box   4 Folder   11	Legislative library work of IEH, 1921-1925
Box   4 Folder   12	Library correspondence, 1944-1946
	McCarthy
Box   4 Folder   13	Alumni commemorative issue, 1921
Box   4 Folder   14	Memorial association, 1921
Box   4 Folder   15	Notes by Irma Hochstein, undated
Box   4 Folder   16	Origins of the Legislative Reference Library and relation to Frank Hutchins, Notes, undated
Box   5 Folder   1	Recollections by friends, 1921
Box   5 Folder   2	Reviews of Fitzpatrick biography, 1944
Box   5 Folder   3	Tributes and obituaries, circa 1921
Box   5 Folder   4	Minimum wage, circa 1929
Box   5 Folder   5	Radio writing information, undated
Box   5 Folder   6	School for Workers, 1927-1930
Box   5 Folder   7	Social Security, 1944-1947
Box   5 Folder   8	Williams, Robert, trial, 1950
Box   5 Folder   9	Women, undated
Box   5 Folder   10	Workmen's Compensation draft fragments, circa 1930
Box   5 Folder   11	Miscellany