While the Howard L. Gottlieb Papers are insufficient for a complete life study (there being no documentation on his career after he left Madison), they do provide some rare and useful research information. Perhaps the most valuable portion of the papers concerns Gottlieb's association with Oscar Mayer as head of its product research department from 1945 to 1950, the period when he was completing his graduate research. This section is important not only because of the specific data it contains about the development and packaging of new food products but also because of the light it sheds on scientific research and development within the private sector. The papers also provide some information on Oscar Mayer, an important Wisconsin company that is under-documented in archival sources at the Historical Society. Gottlieb's other primary employer in Madison was Bjorksten Research Laboratory, which carried out sponsored industrial research in many scientific areas. Once again, the collection includes unique information about a Wisconsin company. The overall picture of research at the lab and even Gottlieb's own activities at BRL is less complete than the material on his research at Oscar Mayer, although some materials touch on Gottlieb's expertise in nuclear energy and there is information on some of the work which led to Bjorksten's personal reputation in the plastics field. Finally, the collection parallels Gottlieb's work for these two employers with a run of personal correspondence. Although the letters touch only infrequently on scientific or research matters, users of the Society's Wisconsin Jewish Archives will find that the letters to and from his family and a succession of girlfriends (one of whom eventually became Mrs. Gottlieb) are a useful source for studying the dynamics of Jewish family life during the 1940's.
The collection is organized as personal papers and correspondence, business papers, and other records.
The PERSONAL PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE include a long run of general correspondence principally covering the period 1940 to 1959; a section of letters concerning his World War II deferment; photographs; and several small diaries covering the period 1933-1937. The diaries contain brief entries concerning his activities as a high school student in Racine. The correspondence contains copies of handwritten letters from his parents and from his brother Kenneth concerning his service in Italy during World War II (in one letter he enclosed a snapshot of the body of Mussolini which he witnessed in Milan), together with Gottlieb's letters to his parents which were returned to him. Unfortunately, the majority of Gottlieb's own letters were written either with faint pencil or with ink which spread on contact with the high-acid paper which Gottlieb used. This paper has been copied onto bond paper to halt its deterioration, but the combination of its porous nature with Gottlieb's writing materials frequently makes his letters difficult to read. The photographs include images from his childhood, early adult life, and operations in a laboratory.
The correspondence covers aspects of his graduate education and his social life. The parents' letters generally cover family matters and health. The relationship between Gottlieb and others (his mother, especially), while not overtly religious, implies a strong Jewish heritage. Gottlieb's extensive correspondence with several girlfriends provides information on their respective personal and professional lives.
The BUSINESS PAPERS are arranged chronologically by employer. The series begins with a file on the National Starch Co., for whom Gottlieb briefly worked as a salesman in 1940. Included are product literature, samples, and in-house newsletters.
The Oscar Mayer material is arranged as an alphabetical subject file. The contents primarily cover the period of Gottlieb's employment although several folders contain material pertaining to Oscar Mayer's military contracts during World War II. A large part of the file consists of reports, memoranda, and handwritten notes and data on research with which Gottlieb was involved. The dated reports and memoranda, frequently present only in the handwritten form Gottlieb prepared for his secretary to type, have been removed from the various files in which they were originally found and microfilmed for preservation.
The majority of the files deal with packaging, especially the introduction of frozen foods and the use of plastic wrap and its impact on product quality and taste. Several files concern the development of the department's library and the acquisition of its research facilities. Together with the reports on Gottlieb's travels, these papers offer insights into the manner in which industrial researchers interacted with their academic colleagues.
The small personnel file contains payroll material, scattered information on employee benefits at Oscar Mayer (especially the retirement program for salaried employees), an employee handbook, a 1948 corporate financial statement, and memoranda. Two of these contained corporate policy statements on an election called to vote on union representation by the Office Employees International Union in 1949. In a 1947 memo President Oscar G. Mayer regrets the passing of a time when he knew all of his employees personally. Elsewhere in the series are files on the company's recreational activities.
The Bjorksten Research Laboratory files are divided into appointment calendars, correspondence, subject files, and numbered project files. The correspondence is arranged as inter-lab correspondence memoranda and general correspondence. The first category contains company newsletters written by Johan Bjorksten concerning his development trips and other matters, lists of employees, mimeographed memoranda on company policies and procedures, memoranda to and from other staff members concerning specific contact research projects, annual financial statements, and other administrative matters. The chronologically-arranged general correspondence contains requests for information, supplies, and equipment pertaining to specific research projects with which Gottlieb was involved. Gottlieb's growing involvement with nuclear research and radioisotopes and BRL's sale of isotopes is documented here.
Elsewhere in the BRL files is information on Gottlieb's involvement in the development of research proposals at the lab, while the subject files also contain reports on several projects with which he appears not to have been involved, such as the work on plastic laminates for which Johan Bjorksten was well known. Subject files which could not be identified by title are filed instead by project number. The largest of these consists of typed and handwritten notes, memoranda, correspondence, reports, data, and background information concerning work on radiotracer techniques. Also filed here are several folders of articles Gottlieb wrote, as well as a few reprints of articles by Johan Bjorksten.
Gottlieb's remaining employers during the 1950's are incompletely documented. For some, such as the American Foundation for Biological Research, it is even difficult to determine the nature of his employment, although it appears to have concerned bovine sperm metabolism and ice crystal formation. The file on the latter also contains a large file of reprints of articles of AFBR staff. The research Gottlieb did for the Wisconsin State Board of Health is represented by drafts and working papers for the 1958 civil defense manual section which he authored on health and medical services.
OTHER RECORDS are arranged chronologically and include files on topics of interest to Gottlieb either personally or as a professional sidelight. He served as editor of the newsletter of the American Chemical Society-Wisconsin Section for some time, and that file contains copies of the newsletters he put together. Several files relate to his activity with the Consumer Cooperative Services during the early 1950's.
