Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler Papers

Manuscript Collection No. 587

1863 - 1927. 1.2 Linear ft.

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE
The Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler Papers were donated by Ernest B. Zeisler, Chicago, Ill., in 1959. Mr Zeisler, by the act of donating the Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler Papers to the American Jewish Archives, assigned all property rights to the American Jewish Archives. All literary rights to material authored by Ms. Zeisler are retained by her heirs. Literary rights to material authored by others are retained by the individuals and their heirs. Questions concerning rights should by addressed to the Executive Director of the American Jewish Archives.
The Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler Papers are open to all researchers. The original manuscript collection is available in the reading room of the Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH top
Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler was born on July 16, 1863 in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia, the youngest of three children and only daughter of Solomon and Bertha (Jaeger) Blumenfield. (Fannie later anglicized her family name - as early as 1883). Fannie’s father came to the United States in 1866, settling first in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his wife and children joined him the next year. About 1869 the family settled in Chicago where for many years the father and mother maintained a dry goods business.
Fannie was educated at home and also in the public schools and at the Dearborn Seminary in Chicago. Fannie showed early musical talent, receiving her initial piano training from her brother, Maurice. At age ten Fannie began training with Carl Wolfsohn, who established the Beethoven Society in Chicago. Her first public performance came at age 11 when she performed Beethoven’s F-major Andante at a Beethoven Society concert. In 1877 Wolfsohn arranged an American tour for Fannie, where she was noticed by Russian pianist Annette Essipoff, who encouraged Fannie to study with her mentor, Theodor Leschetizky of Vienna.

At age 15 Fannie went to Vienna to train with Leschetizky. She remained there for five years, giving many public performances during this time. Returning to Chicago in 1883, Fannie gave her first full-length concert at Chicago’s Hershey Hall on April 30, 1884. On January 30, 1885 she made her New York debut, performing with the New York Orchestra under the direction of Frank B. van der Stucken.

On October 18, 1885 Fannie married Sigmund Zeisler (1860-1931), a prominent Chicago lawyer noted for defending the anarchists in the Haymarket riot of 1886. The couple had three sons: Leonard, Paul, and Ernest. The Zeislers settled in Chicago and became active in the city’s communal and cultural life, even hosting an informal reception at their Woodlawn Avenue home on the last Wednesday evening of each month. Fannie carefully fitted her concert career around her family responsibilities and maintained other interests beyond music. She liked to use tools, and for relaxation is said to have enjoyed carpentry and upholstering.

For decades, Fannie maintained an active, and rigorous, concert schedule in Europe and America. Cutting back her performances in later years, in part due to failing health from the demands of her schedule, Fannie devoted herself to teaching. One of her last acts was the establishment of the Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler Musicians Relief Fund. In 1926 she suffered a serious heart illness. She died the next year, on August 20, 1927 at the age of 64.

The Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick called Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler a “powerful master of the keyboard” and spoke of her “fiery temperament and a technique which is developed in the most minute detail.” Other reviewers cited the beauty and fullness of her tone and the clarity and finish of her passage-work. It was written of Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler that “her intense devotion to the highest standards of musical performance successfully achieved in spite of limited physical resources and diligent attention to family and students, belongs to a heroic tradition of keyboard virtuosity.”

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE top
The Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler (FBZ) papers show the life of a world-renowned pianist. The collection consists primarily of correspondence of FBZ with her contemporaries and fellow musicians. Notable correspondents include: Victor Herbert, Theodor Leschetizky, Eduard Schutt, and Carl Wolfsohn.
Also included in the collection is a draft of a biography of FBZ, written by her husband, Sigmund Zeisler. Written in typescript, with handwritten annotations and corrections, the biography covers the gamut of FBZ’s life in a general chronological framework.

The collection concludes with family and biographical materials (birth certificate, awards, etc.), together with news articles on FBZ, programs and concert announcements, and a partial list of compositions that were recorded or performed by FBZ. Two oversize boxes (Box nos. X-186a and X-186b) contain four scrapbooks on FBZ covering the years 1883-1925. These scrapbooks hold concert announcements and reviews, miscellaneous newsclippings, and occasionally, some letters or other correspondence with colleagues or friends. These scrapbooks have been microfilmed and are available as AJA microfilm nos. 3315-3316.

This is a rich collection, full of personal details about Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, her work, and her family. It is an important collection in that it documents not only an individual musician’s life, it also gives a glimpse into the world and personalities of art and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Finally, the collection is significant because it documents the life of an American Jewish woman - a field of study for which, unfortunately (particularly for this time period), there are few original sources of this size and significance.

Though spanning the years 1863-1927, the bulk of the collection falls within the years 1900-1925.

BOX AND FOLDER LISTING top
Box	Folder		Contents
	
1	1		General correspondence, 1883-1927, n.d.
	2		Bauer, Harold, 1919-1924
	3		Concerts-Lamoureux, Association des, 1897-1911
	4		d'Albert, Eugen, 1890-1892
	5		Herbert, Victor, 1919-1920
	6		Huneker, James G., 1890-1920					
	7		Hutcheson, Ernest, 1907-1925
	8		Kalich, Leopold and Bertha, 1917-1921
	9		Leschetizky, Theodor, Eugenie, and Therese, 1884-1926
	10		Lindan, Paul, 1893; 1912
	11		Mozkowski, Moritz, 1901-1922
	12		Poldini, Ed., 1904-1921
	13		Randolph, Harold, 1910-1913
	14		Safanoff, W., 1907-1911
	15		Schnitzer, Germaine, 1910-1919
	16		Schutt, Eduard, 1882-1926
	17		Steinway and Sons, 1902-1921
	18		Thomas, Theodore, 1890-1900
	19		University Society, Inc., Publishers (Century Library of Music), 1915
	20		Viereck, George Z., 1911
	21		Wolfsohn, Carl, 1885-1906, n.d.
	22		Zeisler, Paul and Ernest, 1911-1912
	23		Biography of FBZ by Sigmund Zeisler, Part I (1863-1879), n.d.
	24		Biography of FBZ by Sigmund Zeisler, Part II (1888-1902), n.d.
	25		Biography of FBZ by Sigmund Zeisler, Part III (1905-1912), n.d.
	26		Biography of FBZ by Sigmund Zeisler, Part IV (1924-1927), n.d.
	27		Birth certificate, 1863; Biographies, n.d.; Awards, 1893-1925
	28		News articles, 1893-1926
	29		Scrapbook pages of news articles and programs, 1876-1884
	30		Programs and announcements of concerts, 1888-1925, n.d.
	31		Lists of compositions recorded or performed by FBZ, 1921-1924, n.d.
	32		Ledger containing list of composers and compositions, n.d.

	X-186a		Scrapbook, 1885-1888
			Scrapbook, 1888-1901

	X-186b		Scrapbook, 1883-1884
			Scrapbook, 1901-1925
			

*See AJA microfilm nos. 3315-3316 for microfilm copy of scrapbooks in boxes X-186a and X-186b
Copyright © 2002 Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives