Arthur I. Okanst scrapbooks
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Abstract
Seventeen scrapbooks and one incomplete index compiled by Arthur I. Okanst (1886-1965), documenting the life and interests of a Jewish Brooklynite during the middle third of the twentieth century. The scrapbooks consist mainly of newspaper clippings, programs, menus, newsletters and other printed ephemera that cover the topics of domestic and international news, Jewish-American life, celebrities, theater, radio, and sports.
Biographical note
Arthur I. Okanst was born on 22 March 1886 in Gnesen (now Gniezno), Poland. He married Helen Newman (b. 1880 in New Haven, Connecticut) on 31 July 1910. The family lived in Flatbush at 1625 East 13th Street, near Kings Highway, from at least 1940 through at least 1961. They had one daughter, Harriet. Harriet married Avery Grossfield, and they had two daughters: Anne Faith and Rena Ellen. In 1951, the Grossfield family moved to Texas.
Okanst actively followed news related to the world and national state of Jewish affairs. In the scrapbooks, he kept many clippings on famous Jewish Americans, as well as news articles on anti-Semitism and the events leading up to and during World War II. Okanst was an active member of his Jewish community, and the scrapbooks contain programs, menus, and other materials from the United Jewish Appeal, the Young Men's Hebrew Association, American Palestine Campaign, the Federation of Jewish Charities in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Zionist Region, and other Jewish charities.
Okanst attended the Reform Synagogue Temple Ahavath Sholom of Flatbush. He was close to Rabbi Alexander Alan Steinbach there, and they exchanged intermittent correspondence beginning in the mid 1930s. Okanst attended and kept the typescript lectures of Rabbi Steinbach's Adult Education Courses throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He also saved the monthly newsletters published by the Temple's Men's Club.
The Okanst family visited Niagra Falls in the summer of 1936, where souvenir leaflets from the Old Fort Niagra and Shredded Wheat factory were obtained, and also Miami, Florida in the winter of 1948. They also traveled to Lake George in upstate New York. Additionally, Okanst seems to have enjoyed popular entertainment: he attended at least one World's Fair (1939), from which he kept printed ephemera, and frequently attended the theater. He also followed celebrity news, as is evidenced by numerous clippings on the various marriages, divorces, and legal cases of contemporary stars.
Okanst was interested in radio and television technology throughout his lifetime, and he worked in the radio industry in the 1920s in sales and manufacturing for Bosch. He lost his job in the Great Depression, and spent some time doing radio repair and odd jobs. His daughter Harriet also quit high school to work at Gimbel's during that time. At some point in the 1930s, he started working for the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. He retired from there in 1955.
Okanst had many hobbies. In addition to scrapbooking, he enjoyed wood carving, photography and videography, metal tooling, and stamp collecting. He also dabbled in painting. In the 1940s, he raised Boston terriers.
Arthur Okanst died in September 1965. Helen joined their daughter's family in Texas after his death, where she died on 13 September 1970.
Arrangement
The seventeen scrapbooks have been put into the order prescribed by Okanst's index, which is chronological except in one instance.
Scope and Contents
The seventeen scrapbooks were once part of a larger series of nineteen. The first and last scrapbooks were not donated to Brooklyn Historical Society. The inclusive dates of the first scrapbook are unknown, but the final scrapbook covers May to September, 1965, and it is likely that it was largely uncompleted. The presence of the two missing scrapbooks was ascertained by deciphering Okanst's hand-compiled index, also included in this collection.
The scrapbooks are common lined composition notebooks, hand foliated. They contain clippings and published obituaries; theater and event programs and playbills; souvenirs, menus, leaflets and other printed ephemera; greeting cards (especially birthday and anniversary cards), telegrams, and invitations to weddings and bar mitzvahs. The scrapbooks also include materials from various Jewish charities and organizations and from Okanst's Temple.
The scrapbooks document Okanst's life and interests. He was an active member of his Temple, and followed politics and Jewish relations at a local, national, and international level. He enjoyed entertainment, especially the theater, and was interested in radio, television, celebrities, and sports, especially boxing and baseball.
Most items are newspaper clippings and most items are pasted in. Many items are dated, either by hand in a large script or, later, by stamp. Some newspaper articles have portions underlined, though there are few, if any, annotations. Items that Okanst indexed have been marked with a check.
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Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
While many items at the Center for Brooklyn History are unrestricted, we do not own reproduction rights to all materials. Be aware of the several kinds of rights that might apply: copyright, licensing and trademarks. The researcher assumes all responsibility for copyright questions.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Arthur I. Okanst scrapbooks, 2004.023, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Rena Grossfield, 2004.
Scrapbooks index
Terms: Arthur I. Okanst's incomplete hand-compiled index consists of nearly 600 entries. Less than 200 are subject terms; the remaining two-thirds are personal or family names. The page number references listed for each scrapbook in this finding aid were copied from Okanst's manuscript index and corrected where needed. Duplicate terms have been consolidated, and the terms have been separated into two classes (subjects and names) and alphabetized. Corrected or expanded terms appear in square brackets.
In the original index, page locations associated with each term appear as a fraction. The first number is Okanst's scrapbook number designation, and the second refers to the foliation. Each page has been numbered in the upper right corner of the recto. The number refers to that leaf's recto and the previous leaf's verso (i.e. the two-page spread of the open scrapbook).
The index also contains listings for scrapbooks numbered 1 and 19, which are not part of this collection. Scrapbook 1, consisting of clippings related to radio, television, and related technology, was given by Rena Grossfield to the Library of American Broadcasting in 2004.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Collection processed in 2008 by Carolyn Vega under the supervision of Leilani Dawson. Collection reprocessed and finding aid revised by Dee Bowers in September 2026.
