Serie - Berliner Family Papers1871-1967

This series contains correspondence, receipts, and ephemera from the Berliner family. The bulk of the series consists of correspondence addressed to Lawrence Berliner. The letters concern business activities not officially conducted by Corry Hide and Fur Company or Berliner Company, rental properties owned by Berliner, information regarding stocks, travel arrangements, and numerous complaints made against railroads and other various companies. Some of the correspondence is from periodicals, such as Variety, The Cleveland Plains Dealer, and The Jamestown Morning Post and concerns freelance reporting jobs that Lawrence Berliner undertook, usually covering entertainment news and activities in the Corry area. There is also some correspondence received from family members, including his brother Manfred and his uncle David Taylor of New York. Because the Corry Hide and Fur Company and Berliner Company were family-run businesses, some of what has been classified as personal correspondence also contains information about the family businesses. In particular, letters from Lawrence’s older brother Manfred contain specific instructions to be followed when one was away from the other. These letters also contain candid observation about other businessmen in the industry.

There are much smaller groups of correspondence connected to the other members of the Berliner family. Manfred J. Berliner’s correspondence includes letters from the early car manufacturers Petrel Motor Car and Imperial Automobiles. The correspondence of Emily Berliner (née Taylor) , the only other sizeable subgroup of family correspondence in the collection, includes letters from members of the Taylor family.

Among the assorted family documents is an 1875 deed ascribed to Rosalie Berliner and an 1899 summons for William Berliner. Also in the collection is a series of military press releases documenting events in the final months of the Pacific Theater of World War II, though their connection to the creators of the collection remains unclear.