Beyond the Basics - 19th Century Business Trade Cards at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

How odd it seems to me that some amateur genealogists declare that their family's genealogy is 'done'.   While birth, marriage and death certificates as well as records related to military service, land transactions and immigration all document important events and relationships in an individual's life,  there is so much more to the family story.  Collections maintained by historical societies are some of my favorite places to search when looking for unusual documents which add color, details and dimension to an ancestor's life story. 

The special collections library and archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (www.hsp.org) should be high on the list of repositories to visit for genealogists researching Pennsylvania ancestors.

With 21 million manuscripts and graphic items in their collections on Locust Street in Philadelphia, finding items related to your Pennsylvania ancestor can seem like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.  However, there is ample assistance on-site for help in starting the search, as well as online catalogs to explore prior to your arrival.

I visited the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) in April 2018.  Upon entering, I told the reference librarian that my great grandfather, Simon Zweighaft (b. 1845, Gostynin, Poland) and his wife, Sophia Hirschberg (b. 1844, Pilica, Poland) were Jewish immigrants from Poland, arriving in Philadelphia around 1867.  Simon was a real estate speculator (another blog post needed for that), but on this visit to HSP I was primarily interested in learning what I could about his other business venture, his jewelry business.  The evidence of his business dealings I had to date was pretty meager:

1) I knew from an 1875 Philadelphia city directory that Simon identified himself as a jeweler. 

2) The 1880 U.S. federal census adds the detail that the couple had a physical shop, with both Simon and Sophia's occupation listed as 'jewelry store'. 

 3) In 1883, Simon and a collaborator were issued patent #280345 for a "jeweler's show-window". 

The text of the patent states that the patent owners "have invented a certain new and useful improvement to prevent burglars from smashing or breaking show-windows of stores or other places where valuable articles are on exhibition and stealing the contents or part thereof before the occupants of the place can prevent it."

4) The final piece of evidence I had documenting Simon's career in the jewelry business was a mention on page 22 of the August 9, 1891 issue of the New York Herald.  The social column "Crowds in the Catskills" identified Simon as a 'diamond broker'.  

The HSP reference librarian suggested that I start my search looking for the surname, street address and 'jeweler' in the old-school physical index to the manuscript collection, 3x5 index cards in the wooden card catalog files (labelled PC1).  While I came up empty on the first two searches, the 3rd for 'jeweler' yielded an interesting find.  The index card pointed me to the business trade card collection where there were four cards for S. Hirschberg on North 8th Street, the address of the Zweighaft home.  

These cards were fascinating to me for several reasons:  

• this is the first time I've seen any sort of a description of the physical shop plus it confirms that the shop was at the same address as the family home
• Sophia was running the shop (just as she had stated on the 1880 census, although until I saw these cards,  I hadn't really considered her as the principal before) 
• Sophia used her maiden name on the cards.  I have no idea why...more research needed!
• and last but not least, the cards themselves are truly lovely, with beautiful artwork and still-vibrant colors despite being around 140 years old

I hope this discovery of mine will inspire others to seek out unusual collections in archives, libraries and other repositories located in the places where your ancestors conducted business, attended school and joined religious and community organizations.   You too may be richly rewarded!

Sophia Hirschberg Zweighaft

Simon Zweighaft