The collection consists of family and business papers documenting nearly three generations of a Jewish family's life in Milwaukee, from 1906 to 1971. It consists of two series: FAMILY and BUSINESS records. The FAMILY series includes letters between Israel Barnett and his family's cousins, Rabbi Saul Schenker and Jenny Trachtenberg, who were living in France following World War II. Much of the correspondence between Barnett and Schenker, a Nazi concentration camp survivor, is concerned with Schenker's efforts to immigrate to the United States. Brief translations accompany the letters written in Yiddish. Genealogical information can be found in letters regarding Israel and Sarah's efforts to secure derivative citizenship papers, clippings and family mementoes, and the file dealing with plans for the Israel Barnetts' 50th wedding anniversary in 1958. A scrapbook and clippings dealing with Jewish religious affairs is also included in this series.
The BUSINESS records series contains legal documents of the woolen mill's 1938 reorganization including an appraisal and property inventory. The correspondence of the mill and the Muskego Company are concerned with financial matters and include letters to and from other mills and textile manufacturers, company employees and sales representatives. The mill's efforts to sell saddle blankets to cowboys are also described through correspondence.
Financial records include claims following the 1938 bankruptcy, an accounting system plan developed in 1919, the 1930 price list and a 1936 property tax assessment. No information regarding the company's size or annual production is included. This series also includes weaving ideas and patents and some actual wool samples.
