Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Textual record
- Photographic material
- Object
- Graphic material
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on the contents of the fonds.
Level of description
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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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
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
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
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
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Name access points
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Status
Level of detail
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.