Title: Joseph Mercedes Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1898-1964

Creator:

• Mercedes, Joseph, 1888-1966

Call Number: Mss 895; PH 2624; PH 2625; PH 3055; PH 3056

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (1 archives box and 1 flat box), 604 photographs, 6 transparencies, 3 drawings, 117 pieces of ephemera, and 13 booklets

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 Joseph Mercedes, a Chicago-born vaudeville entertainer and later, a promoter of the Wisconsin tourist trade. The collection documents the success of his musical mind-reading act which he performed with Helene Clement (stage name “Mlle. Stantone”) whom he married in 1918. After a stage accident crippled Mrs. Mercedes' hand, the couple moved permanently to their summer home in Minocqua, Wis. where in 1931 Mr. Mercedes organized the Heart O' the Lakes Association, later called the Wisconsin Tourist Bureau, with offices in Rhinelander, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. The papers include biographical information; personal and business correspondence; clippings and publicity materials concerning the vaudeville act; miscellaneous ephemera and business papers relating to the Wisconsin Tourist Bureau; clippings concerning Mr. Mercedes' creation of the “Circus Sideshow of the Nineteenth Century” at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin; and photographs and ephemera. The photographs and ephemera document Mercedes' interests and work including his early career as a vaudeville performer in a mental telepathy act.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00895

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Acquisition Information

Presented by Joseph Mercedes, Rhinelander, Wisconsin, 1964. Accession Number: M64-045, M64-073

Processing Information

Processed by S. A. Sheppard, 1966; reprocessed by Donna Sereda, 1998.

Mss 895 Box   1 Folder   1	Biographical information, 1953
Box   2 Folder   1	Circus World Museum
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   2	1911-1937
Box   1 Folder   3	1939-1964
	“Mercedes” (Vaudeville Act)
Box   1 Folder   4	1913-1930, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	1913-1944, undated
Box   1 Folder   5	Wisconsin Tourist Bureau, 1939-1957
PH 2625	“This is Wisconsin” photographs Scope and Content Note: Consists of entries in the “This is Wisconsin” contest run by Mercedes to obtain photographs for his publication of the same title, used for tourist promotion in northern Wisconsin.
PH 3056	Photographs of Native American tourist attraction in Rhinelander, Wisconsin Scope and Content Note: Includes images of a wigwam and of children and adults in traditional garments.
PH 2624 & PH 3055	Miscellaneous photographs Scope and Content Note: Includes images of Mercedes with prominent personalities and at banquets, tourist trade promotional activities, stage appearances, portraits, and images of wax replicas of P.T. Barnum's Circus. Also included are images of vacation cottage developments in northern Wisconsin and architectural drawings of motels and resort buildings.