This series contains an especially wide range of materials in several different languages: biographical information about Eilenberg, including identity papers, passports, and legal documents; documentation of the academic honors and awards he received; correspondence concerning both his academic career and personal affairs; tax returns for the years 1980-94 and bank statements dating from the period 1969-92. The series is organized by type of material.
Box 1 Folder 1
Biographical and Genealogical Information, 1991-1994
Box 1 Folder 2
Identity Papers, Passports, Diplomas, and Legal Documents, 1934-1960
Eilenberg's identity papers, passports, and other travel and legal documents, document his early life and travels (Box 1, Folder 2). Along with war-era documents attesting to his birth date in the absence of a birth certificate and a copy of his marriage license in 1960, are copies of Eilenberg's Polish passports (his later U.S. Passports are missing), visas, and official travel papers, which document his travels through 1930s Europe. Stamps on travel documents for entry into Nazi Germany provide vivid testimony to the Europe that Eilenberg fled in 1939. There are various identity cards, documents, and correspondence relating to Eilenberg's work for the Division of War Research at Columbia in the 1940s, under the auspices of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development; among this material is official correspondence about the possibility of him doing consulting work as a mathematician in an "active war theater." Also there appears to be a dated 1913 copy of Eilenberg's Polish Birth Certificate.
Box 1 Folder 3-5
Academic Honors and Awards, 1945-1992, 3 folders
Box 1 Folder 6
Select Articles on Honors and Awards, 1974-1989
Box 1 Folder 7
Correspondence on Academic Positions and Wartime Appointments, 1939-1966
Box 1 Folder 8
Correspondence and Documents on Columbia Appointments, 1949-1983
Box 1 Folder 9
Family Property in Warsaw: Documents and Correspondence, 1939-1975
Documents and correspondence pertaining to "parents' property in Warsaw," as Eilenberg himself labeled the original file folder. This property might help explain how an academic initially acquired the financial wherewithal to build a multi-million dollar art collection.
Correspondence, Personal
It is worth pointing out that almost all of this personal correspondence consists of letters sent to Eilenberg by others (as is also the case with his math correspondence in Series III); in only a small proportion of correspondence did Eilenberg preserve copies of what he himself wrote in reply. It is also noteworthy that Eilenberg's correspondence is in Polish, French, and occasionally German, in addition to English, evidence of his polyglot language skills.
Box 1 Folder 10
1940-1970
Box 1 Folder 11
1948-1979
Box 1 Folder 12
From "Family Members", 1940-1977
Box 1 Folder 13
Naftali and Malka Frenkiel, 1939-1986
A file pertaining to Eilenberg's cousin, Naftali, a war-time aeronautics researcher in occupied France, provides additional World War II era documents. This material was passed along to Eilenberg after Naftali's death by a friend of his late cousin, who sought Eilenberg's help in securing financial compensation for Naftali's care-giver, as a letter in the folder explains.
Box 1 Folder 14
Bala Borenstein, 1947-1974
Box 1 Folder 15-17
Natasha, 1961-1983, 3 folders
The largest single portion of the correspondence in this series is from Eilenberg's wife, Natasha, and it reveals their genuinely affectionate relationship prior to their bitter divorce proceedings, lasting over 10 years in all. This correspondence also shows that Natasha seems to have been a partner in Eilenberg's art collecting activities, and this viewpoint is supported by the art collection correspondence in Series II, which is frequently addressed to them both.
Box 1 Folder 18
1980-1993
Box 1 Folder 19
70th Birthday Party, 1983
The papers in Folders 19-21, which concern 70th and 80th birthday celebrations provide similar insight into Eilenberg's later years and suggest the esteem with which he was held by a wide circle (as do commemorative papers delivered in Eilenberg's honor by math colleagues in Box 7, Folders 21-22). Organized by art dealer and friend Peter Marks, these birthday celebration documents also illustrate the characteristic way in which Eilenberg's professional contacts in the art and math worlds often factored significantly in his personal life too.
Box 1 Folder 20
70th Birthday Party Autograph Album, 1983
Box 1 Folder 21
80th Birthday Party, 1993
Box 1 Folder 22
Correspondence, undated
Box 1 Folder 23
Diary and Ephemera, 1994-1995
Box 1 Folder 24
Photocards Received by S.E., undated
Box 1 Folder 25
Contact Addresses and Business Cards, undated
Box 1 Folder 26
Travel Information, Brochures, and Clippings, 1953-1996
Box 1 Folder 27
SSI and TIAA Information, 1979-1990
Box 1 Folder 28
Medical Claims and Information, 1963-1994
Box 1 Folder 29
Jewish Home for the Aged, 1995
Tax Returns
Bank Statements
Box 2 Folder 9
1979-1992
Box 2 Folder 7-8
1969-1992, 2 folders
These statements raise the question of why an account for a "Munir Djody" was opened with Eilenberg's Columbia address as its mailing address; based on cancelled checks made out to cash, various art dealers, banks, and Eilenberg himself, this account does indeed seem to have been connected with Eilenberg's art collecting activities.