This small collection documents the adult life of Edith Sinaiko Frank. It includes materials related to her education, civic and cultural activities, and the lives of several members of her family. Papers related to her social activities and correspondence comprise the major portion of the collection. Documentation of each organization is limited and fragmentary, seldom providing a great deal of information about the organization itself. However, taken as a whole the collection documents rather well the life of a well educated, socially active Jewish woman in the post-World War II era. Nevertheless, there are some striking omissions in the collection. There is very little documentation here about her religious heritage or her role in the Jewish community in any of the cities where she lived.
The papers are arranged as BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, SUBJECT FILES, and CORRESPONDENCE.
The BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS contains general information about her life and family. Included are materials related to various Who's Who volumes; photocopied clippings from a scrapbook covering the years 1948-1954; microfilmed loose clippings (the originals of which were destroyed after filming); family photographs; travel diaries; and ephemera. The travel diaries document her trips to Europe and the Soviet Union. Several relate to visits to San Salvador where she visited her daughter almost every year after her marriage in 1950. The photographs are primarily formal portraits of the Sinaiko and Goldberg families. There are many pictures of unidentified individuals, but they are likely also members of these families. There are also a few snapshots of David and Edith Frank and some photographs related to Edith's activities. The ephemera, which includes 1923 dance programs for the Council of Jewish Juniors and the Palestine Builders and a performance by Cantor Josef Rosenblatt, provides the only early documentation in the collection of her religious heritage. Also arranged as part of this series is a landscape plan for her Madison home designed by Marshall Erdman and Associates and a greeting card with sketches of the house.
The SUBJECT FILES are arranged alphabetically by place of residence and thereunder alphabetically by the name of the organization. These files document her associations with many civic, music, and art organizations and with educational institutions. Most of the files are small, consisting of only a few items. The documentation on cultural and musical organizations has been consolidated into the category “miscellaneous organizations” that is listed for each residence. The contents of the organizational files variously include correspondence, publicity materials, and membership lists. The most important concern the AAUW and the LWV, since her involvement with these organizations continued in several residences; and the Toledo United Nations Association, the Madison Art Center, and the Women's Auxiliary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Also interesting is the file relating to her patriotic work during World War II. The files on the University of Wisconsin contain course work, including class papers from her study during the 1920s and research material for her master's degree research project, “Public Relations of State Departments of Public Health-20 Years Later (1948-1968).” The latter file includes questionnaires, survey correspondence, working papers, and manuscripts. Unfortunately, there is little information about her study at either the Wheeler School of Music and Dramatic Arts in Madison or the Cosmopolitan School of Music and Dramatic Art in Chicago.
The CORRESPONDENCE primarily consists of incoming correspondence arranged into the subseries: family, friends, and general correspondence. In addition, there is one folder of letters from publishers. The majority of the letters are handwritten and personal in nature. The family and friends files are each arranged alphabetically by surname. Most important here are the World War II letters of her brother Russell, an army doctor in North Africa, and the file on her mother Sarah Goldberg Sinaiko. Here the correspondence is not between Edith and her mother, but rather consists of Sarah's correspondence as a leader of the Woman's Club and Madison Neighborhood House during the 1930s. This folder includes several contacts with Marie circa Kohler of Sheboygan. Edith's husband, David Frank, was a president of Pure Oil Company. His files contain materials related to his business and career as an engineer, as well as papers regarding his patent for a fuel burner.
Of special note among the correspondence with friends are letters from noted pianist Dame Myra Hess and her niece, Beryl Davis; composer Alberto Ginastera and his wife, the cellist Aurora Natora-Ginastera; creative dancer Minsa Craig; and conductor Wolfgang Stresemann and his wife Jean. These files also contain some biographical information, newspaper clippings, and performance brochures. The folder on Myra Hess includes a draft for a chapter of Myra Hess by Her Friends. The general correspondence is arranged chronologically, with the largest group of letters dating from 1973, the year in which Edith received the “Know Your Madisonian” citation. This file includes a 1969 letter from advice columnist Ann Landers.
