Fonds RA007 - von Baiersdorf, Reif family fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

von Baiersdorf, Reif family fonds

General material designation

  • Textual record
  • Photographic material
  • Object
  • Graphic material

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Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Title based on the contents of the fonds.

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

CA VHEC RA007

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

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Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1885–[196-] (Creation)
    Creator
    von Baiersdorf, Reif family

Physical description area

Physical description

4.7 cm of textual records
22 photographs : black and white
1 album (96 photographs, 1 postcard, and 1 print) ; 26 x 20 cm
1 album (84 photographs, 6 drawings, 1 advertisement) ; 19.6 x 28.5 cm
2 titles
2 death books
1 print
1 family chronicle
1 autograph book
2 ledgers
6 published books

Publisher's series area

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Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

Biographical history

The von Baiersdorf, Reif family were a noble family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, primarily based in Vienna. Members of the family include Adolf von Baiersdorf von Erdős (1822–1890), a wood industrialist; his son Carl Adolf von Baiersdorf von Erdős (1857–1915), a wood industrialist; and his wife Clara (née Redlich) (1868–1927); their daughter Erna von Engel-Baiersdorf (1889–1970), a noted anthropologist and sculptor; their daughter Margit Reif (1894–1965) and her husband Otto Reif ([188-?]–1955), as well as Otto Reif’s mother Elise Reif (1845–1926).

Adolf von Baiersdorf von Erdős was born on May 1, 1826, in Nové Mesto nad Váhom in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Vienna on February 24, 1890. He was ennobled by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1885. His wife Helene Baiersdorf von Erdős (née Biach) was born on November 1, 1832 in Pressburg and died June 15, 1892, in Vienna. Carl Adolf von Baiersdorf von Erdos was born on July 10, 1857, in Pressburg and died September 15, 1938, in Vienna. He was an official in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His wife Clara von Baiersdorf (née Redlich) was born in Goding on August 15, 1868, and died on February 16, 1927, in Vienna.

Erna Clara von Engel-Baiersdorf (née Baiersdorf von Erdős) was born on September 24, 1889, in Vienna and died July 30, 1970, in Vancouver. She worked as an anthropologist at the National History Museum of Budapest and Vienna and was curator at the National History Museum in Pecs, Hungary. In 1944, she was interned in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, then later in the Buchenwald concentration camp. After the Second World War, she immigrated to Canada, where she was Director of Anthropology and Palaeontology at the Museum of Vancouver. She was particularly noted for her work reconstructing a Neanderthal skeleton.

Margit Reif (née von Baiersdorf von Erdős) was born on June 3, 1894, in Vienna and died in 1965 in Vancouver. Otto Reif was born approximately 1894 and died around 1955. Margit and Otto Reif left Austria for England after the Nazi invasion of Austria and immigrated to Canada in 1939.

Custodial history

Records were in the possession of an anonymous donor prior to their donation to the VHEC in accessions in 2009 and 2014. A third accrual was in the possession of Paul Graeme Rosen, who found materials related to Erna von Engel-Baiersdorf amidst his father’s papers and donated them to the VHEC in 2021.

Scope and content

Fonds consists of records relating to the ennobling of the von Baiersdorf family in 1884, the family’s personal financial record keeping, marriages, Otto Reif’s assistance to a displaced person, Erna von Engel-Baiersdorf’s work as a museum curator and artist, the deaths of Clara Baiersdorf Erdos and Elise Reif and the family’s religious and liturgical life.

Fonds consists of records relating to the ennobling of the von Baiersdorf family in 1884, the family’s personal financial recordkeeping, marriages, Otto Reif’s assistance to a displaced person, Erna von Engel-Baiersdorf’s work as a museum curator and sculptor, the deaths of Clara Baiersdorf Erdős and Elise Reif and other personal items.

Records include photographs, correspondence, an illuminated document conferring a noble title on the von Baiersdorf family, books and ephemeral items including postcards and newspaper clippings. Fonds is arranged into the following series: 1884 title (1884); Correspondence (1884–[196-?]); Photographs (1884–[196-?]) and Books, writings and ephemera ([189-]–1954).

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

As there was no discernible original order, fonds has been arranged into four series based primarily on record type.

Language of material

    Script of material

      Location of originals

      Availability of other formats

      Restrictions on access

      Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

      Finding aids

      Finding aid and inventory is available.

      Associated materials

      Related materials

      Accruals

      No further accruals are expected.

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      Standard number

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      Description record identifier

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      Status

      Final

      Level of detail

      Partial

      Dates of creation, revision and deletion

      Fonds was arranged by Jennifer Zilm between July 2016 and April 2017. Updated in 2021 with description of accession by Chase Nelson.

      Language of description

        Script of description

          Accession area