Sloss-Drautman family papers, 1919-1967
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Sloss-Drautman family
Title: Sloss-Drautman family papers, 1919-1967
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 1 cu. ft.
Location Number: Mss. A S634
Biographical Note
Carolyn Sloss (1906-1993) and James “Jimmy” Joseph Drautman (1902-1988) were both from established German-Jewish families in Louisville, Kentucky.
Jimmy was born in Louisville to Henry and Fanny Drautman. Henry Drautman was brother-in-law to and business partner with Abe. C. Levi at the Abe C. Levi Company, established in 1910.
Carolyn Sloss was also born and raised in Louisville. She attended Louisville Girls High School and graduated in 1923. Her father was Stanley Edgar Sloss, Sr. (1874-1918), a lawyer and judge who was a partner at the law firm of Kohn, Bingham, Spindel, Sloss and Baird. He died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Carolyn’s mother was Caroline “Carrye” Kohn Sloss (1879-1964). Carolyn had an older brother Stanley, Jr., and a younger brother Robert. Stanley Sloss, Jr. (1901-1946) was a graduate of Male High School and the University of Michigan, a member of Adath Israel Temple, and president of the Tom Moore Distillery in Bardstown and the Kentucky Valley Distillery Company. He died from a heart attack in 1946. Robert “Bobby” Sloss (1911-1988) was an assistant county attorney in 1938-1942 and served as a lawyer in the U.S. Army during World War II.
In 1932, Carolyn Sloss and Jimmy Drautman married. Their children were James “Jimmy” Drautman, Jr., and Elizabeth “Betsy” Drautman. Betsy was born to Carlotta “Carlie” and Bobby Sloss in 1942. Carrye Sloss, Carolyn, and Jimmie Drautman helped take care of Betsy while Bobby Sloss was in Europe during World War II. When Carlotta and Bobby Sloss divorced, Betsy was adopted by Carolyn and Jimmy Drautman.
Sources:
“Abe C. Levi and Henry Drautman Now Partners,” 25 Dec. 1910, Louisville Courier-Journal
Ancestry.com
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of early-twentieth-century scrapbooks, travel diaries, and miscellaneous papers of Carolyn Sloss, who married James “Jimmy” Joseph Drautman; both were members of established German-Jewish families in Louisville, Kentucky. The scrapbooks document Carolyn’s high school years before she graduated in 1923 and her wedding and honeymoon in 1932. Her travel diaries were kept during a trip to Europe and northern Africa in 1924-1925. Other papers include newspaper clippings from a photograph album, and copies of the World War II correspondence of Carolyn’s brother Robert “Bobby” Sloss.
Folders 1-5 contain travel diaries, correspondence, and ephemera kept by Carolyn during and after a trip to Europe and northern Africa from July 1924 through January 1925. Carolyn traveled with friends Mildred Starr and Marie Mayer and chaperones Beatrice Stine and Cora Starr. In the diaries, Carolyn details the sights and places they visited and the people they met as they traveled through England, Wales, Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, and Algeria. She kept blank postcards (most with images of hotels they stayed at), calling cards, business cards, receipts, maps, and handwritten notes. Correspondence includes telegrams and letters from 1924-1925 that Carolyn received while she was in Europe and after she returned to Louisville.
Folders 6-7 contain the wedding book of Carolyn and Jimmy and mementos from their wedding and honeymoon in 1932. Related to the wedding are notes from wedding shower gifts, dried flower bouquets, letters, lists of guests, newspaper clippings, the wedding certificate, and a few small photographs of Carolyn in her wedding dress. Carolyn and Jimmy’s honeymoon was on the Red Star Line’s S.S. Belgenland, which sailed to Nova Scotia and Bermuda. Included in the scrapbook are the passenger list booklet, ship entertainment programs and dinner menus, and information about the layout and amenities of the Belgenland. There are also photographs of Carolyn, Jimmy, and other passengers from the ship.
Folder 8 contains copies of correspondence from 1944-1945, written by Carolyn’s brother Bobby Sloss, who served as a lawyer in the U.S. Army during World War II. The originals are at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. He writes his family from England, Belgium, France, and Germany. He responds to his parents’ and siblings’ updates about his young daughter Betsy and, in early 1945, references his divorce from his wife Carlotta, “Carlie.”
Folder 9 holds manuscript materials, ca. 1910s-1960s, removed from a photograph album (Sloss-Drautman family photograph collection [022PC24]). These materials include newspaper clippings about Henry Drautman, Jennie Buchen Kohn, Stanley E. Sloss, Carolyn Sloss Drautman, Jimmy Drautman, Jimmy Drautman, Jr., and Amy Teiser; an invitation to the 1961 wedding of Elizabeth Ann Drautman and William Lorch Teiser; and an undated greeting card from Irvine and Amy Brown of Burlingame, California.
Volume 10 is a scrapbook kept by Carolyn Sloss from ca. 1919 through the mid-1920s. Included are theatre programs, mementos from Louisville Girls High School and from Camp Kearsarge in Naples, Maine, dried flowers, notes about social events and friends, and some photographs.
Related collections
Sloss-Drautman family photograph collection [022PC24].
Folder List
Box 1
Folder 1: Carolyn Sloss travel diary, July-Sept. 1924
Folder 2: Loose papers from Carolyn Sloss travel diary, July-Sept. 1924
Folder 3: Carolyn Sloss travel diary, Sept. 1924-Jan. 1925
Folder 4: Loose papers from Carolyn Sloss travel diary, Sept. 1924-Jan. 1925
Folder 5: Carolyn Sloss correspondence, 1924-1925
Folder 6: Carolyn and Jimmy Drautman wedding book, 1932
Folder 7: Loose papers from Carolyn and Jimmy Drautman wedding book, 1932
Folder 8: Copies of correspondence of Robert “Bobby” Sloss, 1944-1945
Folder 9: Newspaper clippings and miscellaneous items from photograph album, ca. 1910s-1967
Volume 10: Carolyn Sloss scrapbook, ca. 1919-1926
Subject Headings
Algeria – Description and travel.
American Red Cross.
Belgenland (Steamship).
Belgium – Description and travel.
Botanical specimens.
Camp Kearsarge (Naples, Me.)
Churchill Downs (Louisville, Ky. : Racetrack).
Confirmation (Jewish rite).
Drautman, Carolyn Sloss, 1906-1993.
Drautman, James Joseph, 1902-1988.
England – Description and travel.
France – Description and travel.
Germany – Description and travel.
International travel.
Italy – Description and travel.
Jewish businesspeople – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish families – Kentucky – Louisville.
Louisville Girls’ High School.
Macauley’s Theatre (Louisville, Ky.)
Monaco – Description and travel.
Netherlands – Description and travel.
Scotland – Description and travel.
Scrapbooks – Kentucky – Louisville.
Sloss, Robert Lee, 1911-1988.
Sloss, Stanley Edgar, 1901-1946.
Switzerland – Description and travel.
Teenagers – Social networks – Kentucky – Louisville.
Theater programs – Kentucky – Louisville.
Transatlantic voyages.
Travel.
Vatican City – Description and travel.
Weddings – Kentucky – Louisville.
World War, 1939-1945.
Young Men’s Hebrew Association (Louisville, Ky.)
