Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Ryan, John Barry, 1874-1942
| title | Otto H. Kahn Papers ©2007 Princeton University Library | repository | Princeton University |
| description | Consists primarily of correspondence (over 400 boxes) of Kahn during the last twenty-five years of his life when he was prominent as an international banker (with Kuhn, Loeb & Co.), a philanthropist, and a leader in the cultural life of both New York City and the nation. Much of the collection is related to Kahn's business interests in the financial community and in the arts, such as the Metropolitan Opera House where he was chairman of the board. The correspondence reflects not only his generosity as a philanthropist but also the active interest he took in the many groups he supported by serving on administrative and policy-making boards. The scope of Kahn's influence can be seen in the many letters, telegrams, and statements of sympathy from all over the world expressed at his death. As a patron of the arts and an international banking figure, he was often called upon to speak, and the collection contains many pamphlet copies of such public addresses and published opinions, as well as 25 bound volumes of correspondence and clippings regarding them. There is also material assembled by John Kobler while preparing his biography Otto the Magnificent: The Life of Otto Kahn (1988), with the manuscript of his text. Included among Kahn's correspondents are the world leaders Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Winston Churchill; and the well-known composers and performers Cleofonte Campanini, Enrico Carusco, George Gershwin, Alma Gluck, Lee Shubert, Jacob J. Shubert, and Arturo Toscanini. Biographical and Historical Note Otto Hermann Kahn was born in Mannheim, one of the eight children of Bernhard and Emma (née Eberstadt) Kahn. His father was a banker who took part in the German revolution of 1848, was condemned to death, and escaped to America. He remained in the U.S. for ten years, becoming a naturalized citizen, but returned to Germany after an amnesty for revolutionary refugees had been declared. His fiancee's parents would not consent to his taking their daughter to America, so Kahn stayed in Germany and raised his children with a good deal of exposure to things cultural. The Kahn children grew up surrounded by valuable works of art. Otto learned to play the cello and violin as a youth, and by the age of seventeen had written two five-act tragedies in blank verse (though they were never performed). When Kahn was in his teens, his father had him apprenticed to a bank in Karlsruhe as an office-boy and general handy-man. Otto showed the same talent for finance as his father, and at seventeen was promoted to the level of a clerk. [See online finding aid for complete Biography] Notes: The primary language of the collection is English, but there are also materials in French and German, and a small amount in Hungarian and Italian. Location: Special Collections Call number: TC032 |
| extent | 191.2 linear feet (459 archival boxes, 8 record center cartons, 1 oversize flat box) |
| formats | Correspondence Ephemera Business Records Photographs Clippings |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions |
| record link | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/3t945q793 |
| bibliography | Some correspondence in the collection was published in Otto the Magnificent: The Life of Otto Kahn, edited by John Kobler (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1988). |
| record source | http://catalog.princeton.edu |
| finding aid | Online and in repository. Finding Aid Published in 2002, ©2007 Princeton University Library |
| acquisition information | The collection was a gift from Gilbert W. Kahn in 1951. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:30:03 |
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