Overview
Professional papers on topics including immigration and labor, extradition cases, and Russia.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1891-1924
Language of Materials
English, Russian, Yiddish
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
This collection/ a portion of this collection may contain fragile materials that require special care in handling. Please request assistance as needed with fasteners or brittle pages.
Extent
5 linear feet (8 boxes)Collection materials were created and collected by Hourwich during the course of his professional career in the United States and reflect the different jobs and views he held over the course of his lifetime with items dating from the late 19th century to the mid-20thcentury. Material types include correspondence (including with George Kennan), clippings, manuscripts of IHA's "Labor and immigration," printed materials, books, reviews, photographs, reports, congressional documents, and legal briefs. The collection focuses on 3 major topics: immigration and labor, extradition and political refugees (including Jan Janoff Pouren and Feodor Fedorenko), and materials related to Russia and U.S./Russia relations including social, political, legal, and economic aspects.
Biographical / Historical
Isaac Hourwich (1860-1924), born in Lithuania (Russian Empire) immigrated to the United States in 1890 fearing persecution for his involvement in revolutionary activities. He first settled in New York City where he received his PhD at Columbia in economics and then moved to Chicago where he worked at University of Chicago. Hourwich held several positions within the United States Government working at the Bureau of the Mint as a translator and the Bureau of the Census as a statistician and was admitted to the bar in Illinois and Russia. Hourwich used his legal expertise in the field of immigration and served on several extradition cases. Hourwich was a member of the Socialist Labor Party and later the Social Democratic Party and also became active in the Zionist movement.
Arrangement
Box-level description. Detailed inventory in curatorial file.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
Gift of family of Isaac Hourwich, 1969.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
70M-173. Gift of the family of Isaac Hourwich in 1969 December.
Processing Information
Processed by Ashley Nary, 2018
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation.
- Title
- Hourwich, Isaac A. (Isaac Aaronovich), 1860-1924. Isaac Hourwich papers, circa 1891-1924 (MS Russ 141): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- 1/24/2018
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02876
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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