Finding Aid
Esses, Israel Moise (Isy)
Unico Trading Company
M.I. Esses & Sons Ltd.
Israel Moise (Isy) Esses fonds. – 1934-1941. – 12 cm of textual records and realia (fabric samples).
Box 1
First Accrual:
F.1-3 Copy books, written by I.M. Esses, containing carbon copies. The top copies would have been mailed. His letters contain both business and personal content. In addition to correspondence, financial statements and shipment lists are written in the books. They also contain telegrams, receipts, invoices, and bills of exchange, either pasted into the books or found loose. Copybooks numbers 1 and 2 are not extant.
F.1 “Correspondence. I.M. Esses, 9/12/34 to 30/6/36”, numbered “3”. Copy book contains letters to his brothers Abraham and Clement, his mother and father, his sisters Rachel and Gladys as well as Joseph Shamah in Jerusalem and Bohie and Isaac. Includes an invoice to Messrs. Joseph Esses & Cie., Aleppo, with accompanying document in Arabic.
F.2 “Correspondence I.M. Esses, 8/8/36 to 238/3/38”, numbered “4”. Copybook contains letters to his brothers, Abraham and Clement, as well as Joseph Shamah.
F.3 “Correspondence I.M. Esses, 26/4/38 to 25/8/38”, numbered “5”. Copybook contains letters to his brothers Clement and Abraham, as well as Leon M. Safdie, in Haifa.
F.4-8 Materials removed from binder labelled “Private Letters with Dublin, 3 March 1941 to 13 Nov. 1941”. Note that letters dated 3 March 1941 and 13 November 1941 are not extant. Also note that the contents of the binder actually begin in 1938. Letters were put into the binder in no particular order; they have been re-arranged as follows.
F.4 Binder label; "Private Letters with Dublin, 3 March 1941 to 13 Nov. 1941".
F.5 Formal business correspondence and invoices between Unico Trading Co. Ltd. and M.I. Esses & Sons, 12 Dec. 1938-16 June 1941. There is no indication in these letters that the people involved are related.
F.6 Correspondence from Isy Esses to his brothers Abraham and Clement Esses (both incoming and outgoing), 13 Jan. 1941-8 May 1941. These letters contain both business and personal content.
F.7 Correspondence from Isy Esses to his brothers Abraham and Clement Esses (both incoming and outgoing), 15 May 1941-25 Oct 1941. These letters contain both business and personal content.
F.8 Directives from the British Consulate, Kobe, 1940-1.
Second Accrual:
F.9-12 Materials removed from binder labelled "Private Letters with Dublin, 26 Dec. 1939 to 3 March 1941". Note that there is some correspondence from October 1939. These are mainly business letters and telegrams. Although labelled "with Dublin", there is occasional correspondence with other companies such as Issac Antaki &Co. (Kobe, Japan), McLean Kennedy Ltd. (Montreal and Saint John), M.E. Wahba (Shanghai). With the exception of the letters placed in File 9, binder order has been maintained.
F.9 Binder label; also two letters, one from Abraham and one from Clement to Isy, 1940-41 concering the death of their father.
F.10 Letters and telegrams, 3 March 1941 to 3 January 1941; incoming and outgoing, includes fabric samples.
F.11 Letters and telegrams, December to July 1940; incoming and outgoing.
F.12 Letters and telegrams, July 1940 to October 1939; incoming and outgoing.
F.13 Materials removed from binder labelled "Letters, H.E. Gubbay, 18 July 1939". The letters and telegrams cover the period 22 Dec. 1938 to 22 Oct. 1941; incoming and outgoing. H.E. Gubbay was with G.B.C. Wholesales [Pty.] Ltd., Johannesburg, South Africa. Although this correspondence is mainly business, there are two letters from Isy, documenting his travels from Japan to Bombay and Cape Town in 1941.
F.14-5 Materials removed from binder labelled "Letters, J.D. Btesh, 20 Nov.". The letters and telegrams cover the period Nov. 1939 to Oct. 1941; incoming and outgoing. Binder order has been maintained. Joseph D. Btesh's firm was located in Buenos Aires; at times his mailing address was care of Messrs. Zrike Importing Co., New York; he was also in Peru and Johannesburg during this period. There is also correspondence with G.N. Musry (Bombay) and Ezra Chrem & Co. (Lima). Some of the Btesh correspondence concerns Isy's need to leave Japan because he was close to a nervous breakdown. Btesh was attempting to help find a replacement. One document is in Arabic. There are also five letter from Isy's sister Rachel, Jan.-Mar. 1940.
F.16 Copy book. “Correspondence I.M. Esses, 14/1/39 to”, numbered “7”. The last letter was written on 30 April 1942. The copy book contains letters to his brothers, Abraham and Clement, as well as his mother, sisters Gladys and Rachel, Leon (Gladys's husband). There are also business letters to others. Telegrams concerning the death of Isy's father are pasted into the book. Also found loose in this copybook are two telegrams concerning Isy's proposed engagement to Marchelle Shalom as well as Palestine Declaration of Value and Invoice of Goods forms from H. Hayashihara, March and June 1939.
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