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Edgar J. Nathan, Jr. papers

Call Number

MS 438

Date

1808-1976, inclusive

Creator

Nathan, Edgar J., Jr., 1891-1965

Extent

22.1 Linear feet in 18 record cartons, one flat box, and three oversize folders

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The Edgar J. Nathan, Jr. papers include documents related to Nathan's civic service as a politician and communitarian, particularly within Jewish organizations. The collection includes speeches, correspondence, reports, and memorabilia from his time as a delegate to the 1938 New York Constitutional Convention, as Manhattan Borough President (1941-1945), and as a Justice to the New York Supreme Court (1946-1965), in addition to containing papers on his lifelong work in the Jewish community, particularly with Congregation Shearith Israel and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Print matter (much of it related to Judaism), photographs, general personal correspondence, and materials related to his time in the practice of law or in the service of the War Trade Board during World War I can also be found in the collection, along with limited materials related to Nathan's ancestry and early Jewish immigration to America.

Biographical / Historical

Edgar J. Nathan, Jr. was born in New York City to parents Edgar J. Nathan, Sr. and Sara N. Solis on 28 August 1891. As a young man, Edgar J. Nathan, Jr. attended the Collegiate School, graduating in 1909 and receiving his A.B. degree from Williams College in 1913. Following in his father's footsteps, Nathan then studied law at Columbia University, where he received his L.L.B. After graduating from Columbia in 1916, Nathan briefly practiced law in his father's firm, Cardozo & Nathan (though relatives of Benjamin N. Cardozo worked for this firm, there are no records in this collection of Benjamin N. Cardozo in conjunction with Cardozo & Nathan), before marrying his lifelong wife, Mabel Unterberg, in 1917, with whom he would have two sons: Edgar J. Nathan, III and Frederick S. Nathan. When World War I began, he got a job at the War Trade Board, where he remained for two years. He climbed the ranks of his department, becoming the Chief of the Division of Restricted Imports before he resigned to return to the practice of law at Cardozo & Nathan.

Nathan, a direct descendant of Abraham de Lucena, one of the 13 original Jewish settlers in America, came from a very prestigious bloodline with deep ties to the United States, New York City, Judaism, and Shearith Israel—the earliest Jewish congregation in America, which was founded by Nathan's ancestors upon their arrival in New Amsterdam in 1654. As a result, Nathan dedicated large portions of his life to Jewish service and held positions of power in various Jewish organizations, including such titles as Vice-President, and later President, of Shearith Israel (for much of his life), Director of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Director and Vice-President of the American Jewish Historical Society, Secretary of the Jewish Family Service, President of the League of Fraternal and Benevolent Organizations of the Jewish Education Committee, and Director and President of The Judeans, among others. Nathan also did philanthropic work outside of the Jewish community, working as Director of the Goodwill Industries of New York and Honorary Director of the Knickerbocker Hospital in addition to donating large sums of money to various organizations, including his alma maters, all three of which (in addition to the Jewish Theological Seminary) eventually granted him awards or honorary degrees.

Though Nathan attempted to secure a position as Assistant Attorney General in 1920, it was not until 1937 that he was elected to his first political office, as a Republican delegate to the New York Constitutional Convention. There, he was on the Committees on the Judiciary, Bill of Rights, and Cities, where he worked with such notable politicians as Al Smith and Robert Wagner. One year later, in 1939, he ran for a vacant position on the New York Supreme Court, but failed to obtain the office, and so returned to the practice of law.

In 1941, Nathan successfully ran for Manhattan Borough President on the Republican and Fusion Party tickets. While in office, from 1941-1945, he worked alongside Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Robert Moses on post-war construction works, including the East River (FDR) Drive and plans for the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX), though it was never built. When he ran for reelection in 1946 and was ousted, he briefly joined the law firm of Gale, Bernays, Falk, Eisner, & Nathan, before Governor Thomas Dewey appointed him to a vacant seat on the New York Supreme Court, in the First Judicial District, in March 1946. That November, Nathan was officially elected to fill the vacancy for a fourteen-year term, and eventually, in 1960, he ran successfully for reelection. He served on the court past the retirement age, remaining on the bench until his death on 30 April 1965.

Arrangement

The collection is organized in the following series:

Series I. Constitutional Convention, 1937-1941
Series II. Manhattan Borough Presidency, 1923-1945 (bulk, 1941-1945)
Series III. New York Supreme Court, 1938-1965
Series IV. Jewish Leadership, 1896-1967 (bulk, 1937-1965)
Series V. General Correspondence, 1900-1976
Series VI. Print Matter, 1881-1959 (bulk, 1890-1925)
Series VII. Memorabilia, 1808-1966

Scope and Contents

The Edgar J. Nathan, Jr. papers are comprised primarily of documents related to Edgar J. Nathan's work in civic service, both in terms of his involvement in New York politics and his active Jewish life. The collection includes papers—including correspondence, speeches, campaign materials, and reports on his accomplishments in office—for the three main stages of Nathan's political life, beginning with his time as a delegate to the 1938 New York Constitutional Convention and proceeding to his tenure as Manhattan Borough President in the early 1940s and New York Supreme Court Justice from 1946 until his death in 1965. During the years of Nathan's political service, he came into contact and formed relationships with a variety of influential political figures, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, Al Smith, Robert Wagner, Nelson Rockefeller, and Thomas Dewey. Thus, the collection includes correspondence with some of these men, though in other cases Nathan possessed only their signatures or impersonal notes from their offices. The collection also includes a significant amount of correspondence with Nathan's cousin, Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo.

In regards to Nathan's Jewish life, the collection contains documents—mainly souvenir programs, correspondence, speeches, and print matter—from a variety of organizations with which he was intimately involved, most prominently Shearith Israel (also known as the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation) and the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). The papers include extensive correspondence and memorabilia from major events in each organization's history, including Shearith Israel's (and worldwide) tercentenary celebrations commemorating the 300th anniversary of the arrival of Jews in America, the Jewish Theological Seminary's semi-centennial anniversary, and, in the case of Shearith Israel, stretching as far back as the consecration of their current house of worship in 1896.

The collection is also home to a sizable quantity of Nathan's personal correspondence and bills, most of which originate from the mid-20th century, as well as photographs, accumulated books (mostly on Jewish topics), and personal memorabilia, some of which pertains to preceding generations of the Nathan family—including, but not limited to, information on early Jewish immigration to the United States that traces the genealogies of the Nathan, Gomez, Seixas and Solis families.

For more information on early Jewish families that were related to the Nathans, see the New-York Historical Society's collection of the Hendricks Family papers.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Use Restrictions

This collection is owned by the New-York Historical Society. The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as the Edgar J. Nathan, Jr. papers, MS 438, New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was donated by Frederic S. Nathan and Edgar J. Nathan, III in September 1980.

Related Materials

Other materials related to the Nathan family can be found in the Hendricks Family papers, particularly in Subseries IX.F and IX.G.

Collection processed by

Zora Arum

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:15 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

The collection was processed by archival intern Zora Arum in 2018.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024