{"value"=>"<p>Of the twelve boxes in this series, only one, Box 3, contains materials that originally belonged to Oscar Straus. These include letters from contributors to his campaign for governor of New York, 1912; letters of condolence he received after the deaths of Isidor and Ida Straus; a copy of a letter from Henry Ward Beecher to Grover Cleveland, 1887, advocating Straus for U. S. ambassador to Turkey; and family correspondence, including Isidor's last letters to Oscar. (How these items became part of the Macy's archives is unclear.) There is also a copy of a biographical article on Oscar Straus that appeared in the <em>Jewish Tribune</em> in 1927, a year after his death.</p> <p>The remaining eleven boxes in Series 2 are papers of Isidor Straus. Boxes 4 through 7 contain family and business correspondence (including four folders of letters from Oscar Straus, 1889-1912, in Box 4). Box 8 holds speeches and writings by Isidor Straus, 1894-1911, chiefly commencement addresses and talks before the boards of charitable organizations. In Box 9 are account books, memoranda books, pocket calendars, and other notebooks of Isidor Straus, 1887-1912, and undated.</p> <p>Boxes 10 through 12 contain scrapbooks compiled by Isidor Straus: telegrams and letters congratulating him on his election to congress, 1894 (Box 10), obituaries and letters of condolence received after the death of Lazarus Straus, 1898 (Box 11), and newspaper and magazine articles that mention Isidor Straus, 1893-1901.</p> <p>Boxes 13 and 14 contain posthumous material: in Box 13 are a short autobiography by Isidor Straus, privately published by his family in 1955; and an M.A. thesis on Straus's political career by Saul Viener of the University of West Virginia, 1947. Box 14 contains memorial tributes to Isidor and Ida Straus, and materials relating to the sinking of the <em>Titanic</em>, including clipped articles from 1953 and 1962.</p>"}