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Alaska Fur Company letters

 Collection
Identifier: 1000-021

Scope and Contents

Letters from Margaret Krupp, wife of Herman Krupp, discuss company business including what to purchase in Japan, China and Siberia as well as brief descriptions of her weekly social activities. Letters from Herman’s sister, Evalyn Krupp, primarily discuss her life as a student at Garfield High School including attending football games and social events. Letters from Frances Krupp, Herman’s mother, share her regards for his health and safety.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1929-1934
  • Creation: Majority of material found within circa 1929-1934

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open and available for use.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright restrictions apply.

Biographical / Historical

The Alaska Fur Company, later Oceanic Trading Company, was based in Seattle and founded by Herman’s father, Meyer Krupp. Herman Krupp crossed the Pacific Ocean over 40 times as an importer and worked until his death in 1989. Herman was also an active musician and according to Seattle Times articles, credited with introducing the accordion to Japan where he played for Crown Prince Akihito, son of the Emperor Hirohito, at his birth celebration and played separately with Edward, Duke of Windsor, in Japan. The Alaska Fur Company imported and sold “Alaskan curios,” pearls and semi-precious stones, furs, and fur clothing in Seattle, Washington.

Full Extent

.21 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Abstract

Letters addressed to Herman Krupp (1900-1989), circa 1929-1934, while he was based in Kobe, Japan as a buyer for Alaska Fur Company.

Arrangement

Chronologically arranged, letters and envelopes separated.

Processing Information

Acknowledgement of Harmful Content
The Seattle Public Library Special Collections Department is committed to creating an inclusive archive that documents the history of our diverse communities in a respectful manner. Our collections include historic materials that may contain images and outdated language which can be harmful due to issues such as racism, colonialism, sexism and homophobia. This content can provide important insight into the creator and context of the historic materials but can also reveal hurtful biases and prejudices.

We may decide to use or retain harmful language in our description when the terms have been used by the creator(s) of the materials to describe themselves or their community; when we have reused description created by the donor; when we have transcribed information directly from the materials; and when using national standards such as Library of Congress Subject Headings, which allow for standardized searching and retrieval of records. When including language from the original material in our finding aids or descriptions, we will indicate that this material comes directly from the original item by putting the language in quotes or prefacing it with a note that says the description is transcribed from the item or provided by the creator.

We will continually review our finding aids to identify harmful language and encourage you to contact us at specialcollections@spl.org if you find language that causes concern.

Title
Alaska Fur Company letters, circa 1929-1934
Author
Joe Bopp
Date
September 2019
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Revision Statements

  • August 2024: Revised by Heather Marker

Repository Details

Part of the Seattle Public Library, Special Collections Repository

Contact:
1000 4th Ave.
Seattle WA 98104 United States
206-386-4636