Summary Information
Irma E. Hochstein Papers 1916-1965
- Hochstein, Irma E., 1887-1974
Mss 750
2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
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. English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00750 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
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.
Scope and Content Note
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.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Irma E. Hochstein, Washington, D.C., 1962-1968. Accession Number: M62-169, M62-144, M68-375
Processed by Robin A. Paynter and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1988.
Contents List
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
|
|
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Series: Subject Files
|
|
Box
4
Folder
1
|
Atomic bomb, 1945-1957
|
|
Box
4
Folder
2
|
Blacks in Washington, D.C., 1943-1947
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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
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Box
5
Folder
11
|
Miscellany
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|
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