Emmanuel H. Brandt Collection, 1807-42, 1889 | University of Illinois Archives

Description: The Emmanuel Henry Brandt Collection was a gift to the University of Illinois from Mr. Walter A. Brandt of London, arranged by Professor Emeritus Walther Kirchner, of Princeton, N.J. The collection arrived at the University on November 17 and 19, 1975. The collection includes business and private papers of the London merchant, Emmanuel Henry Brandt, the brother and agent of William Brandt (1778-1832) or Archangel, Russia. In 1793, William left their home in Hamburg and arrived in Archangel. By 1801, he and Jacob B. Rodde had formed the trading house of Rodde, Brandt and Company. By 1807, his brother Emmanuel had established himself as an agent of the company in London. Operating from Batson's Coffee House in London, E.H. Brandt and Company were active traders. In 1812, the commercial disruptions of the Napoleonic era caused the dissolution of Rodde, Brandt and Company. In 1816, William Brandt reentered the trading world and formed William Brandt and Company. William Brandt and Company surpassed the original firm and became the major mercantile house in Archangel, the fourth largest port in Russia in the 1820s. The Archangel branch of the Brandt family owned factories, banks & shipyards and served as consuls for England and the United States. As his brother's agent, E.H. Brandt's papers are a source on the Russian-English, North Sea, Portuguese, and Brazilian trades for 1807-42. In the 1950s a branch of the Archangel firm moved to London and established William Brandt's Sons. The collection contains a few firsts, seconds and thirds of exchange (bank drafts) and telegraphic requests for commodities for the 1870-75 period. The Emmanuel H. Brandt Collection contains over 2000 pieces which concern the years 1807 to 1889. The most detailed coverage is in the years 1807 through 1819. The materials include business papers ranging from canceled checks, bills of lading, lists of prices current, export lists for Archangel, contracts and charter party papers to business letters that describe the daily, internal working of European commerce in the early 1800s. The largest part of the collection contains incoming and outgoing business letters of E.H. Brandt in London. Principal correspondents include the firms of Halls and Todd of Hull, William Brandt and Company of Archangel, Ramsay Williamson and Co. of Leith, Meuron and Company of Lisbon, Mollwo and Son of St. Petersburg, Bausch and Co. of Hamburg, and March Brothers and Co. of Rio de Janeiro. The papers also include checks drawn on the houses of Baring, Stieglitz, and Rothschild; information on shipping; insurance; litigation; packets containing consular reports; Russian naturalization papers; French passports and a copy of a book on the exploration of Novaya Zemlya, which had been funded by William Brandt.