History and Culture

Mothers & Daughters: The Loeb Family

May 14, 2023

by Tanya Elder

*Deborah Loeb’s inscription to her mother, Frances, undated. Loeb Family Papers, P-892, Museum Collection*

This small book entitled “Love Is a Special Way of Feeling” by Joan Walsh Anglund, was given to Frances Lehman Loeb on Mother’s Day 1960 or 1961. Debby is Deborah Loeb Brice, youngest of Frances’ five children who wrote, “Dear Moms. This has been a divine morning, and I’m sure the whole day will be the same. Love is a special way of feeling and it is felt by everyone around you. Love, Debby.” The Loeb family (parents John and Frances, and children Judith, John, twins Anne and Arthur, and Deborah) were a close-knit family who spent a lot of quality time together. Deborah was fourteen years younger than Anne and Arthur and would have been about fourteen years old when she inscribed this sweet note to her “moms.”

*Judith, Deborah and Anne Loeb in “IKE” Dresses and Parasols. Loeb Family Papers, P-892, Box 110, Folder 9A*

Frances Lehman Loeb was a pro-choice Republican and heavily involved in politics. In the 1950s, she led New York City committees to elect candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower for president. An undated speech in the Loeb Family Papers outlines how she helped formed ladies’ committees to campaign for Eisenhower, including creating dresses with “IKE” on them for canvassers. These photographs show her three daughters, Judith, Anne, and Deborah in matching dresses and parasols.

We hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day.

*Page of speech given by Frances Loeb regarding Eisenhower campaign and dresses. Loeb Family Papers, P-892, Box 31, Folder 07A*

Tanya Elder

Tanya Elder studied Experimental Theatre, History and Archival Management at New York University and Library Science at Wayne State University. She was a children’s librarian at the Philadelphia Free Library and the Queens Public Library; she worked as an Archives Assistant at the NYU University Archives; and as a project archivist at the Brooklyn Historical Society, the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives (New York City Council, 1898-1998), and the Stephen Wise Synagogue. She was archivist at the Riverside Church in New York City, and researcher for ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? As an NHPRC archivist at the Center for Jewish History, she re-processed the Raphael Lemkin papers, a lawyer who developed the theory of genocide, and wrote on the known American archives of Lemkin entitled, “’What you see before your eyes’: documenting Raphael Lemkin’s life by exploring his archival Papers, 1900–1959,” for the Journal of Genocide Research. She also published the essays “Hip v. Nice v. Nasty. v. Traditional v. Aaarrgghhh” and “What Do I Have to Be,” for two compilations of In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship. She is currently the Senior Archivist of the American Jewish Historical Society.