Title: Sadie Stern Goldman Papers, 1914-1957, 2021, 2025
Predominant Dates:1914-1957
Collection identifier: 1113
Primary Creator: Goldman, Sadie (1898-1973)
Extent: 0.4 cubic feet
Subjects: Central Illinois Jewish Communities Archives, Jews--United States, Sangamon County--Springfield (Ill.)
This collection contains the scrapbook and four diaries of Sadie Stern Goldman. The four diaries are from August 1914 to October 1917, describing her everyday life in Springfield, Illinois. The scrapbook contains newspaper clippings and ephemera representing her interests and experiences as a Jewish woman in the early mid-1900s.
Sadie Stern was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1898. The daughter of Russian immigrants Abraham Stern (1868-1908) and Margaret (known as Machla or Maggie) Iker Stern (1871-1926), she grew up in Springfield, Illinois. Sadie had a sister named Bessie (1896-1971) and two brothers, Harry (1896-1961) and Samuel (1900-1943). The family moved to Springfield, Illinois, in 1901, and opened a furniture store. Abraham Stern died in 1908 and the family sold the store in 1912, according to a diary entry. Sadie left school in September of 1914 and helped her mother in the home while looking for work and completing odd jobs in town. Much of her social life revolved around meeting friends and family for ice cream or soda at Kirman’s Dry Goods, a general store where the Jewish community gathered. After her older sister Bessie was laid off from Kirman’s, she began working at Illinois Watch factory in April 1915. In June of that year, Sadie also began working at the factory. In the early 1920s, Sadie and her brothers Harry and Samuel founded Stern Furniture Co., a department store in downtown Springfield. Here, she worked as a salesperson, as well as the secretary and treasurer. She married Joseph Goldman (1900-1972) around 1941. Sadie Goldman died in Springfield, Illinois, in 1973.
This collection contains a scrapbook created by Sadie Goldman, as well as detached scrapbook pages. The contents of the scrapbook include newspaper clippings that describe Stern Furniture Co. and events that occurred in Springfield’s Jewish community and include advertisements directed at women and the Jewish community. The bound scrapbook spans 1914-1939, and the loose pages span 1917-1956.
The collection also includes Stern’s diaries from 1914 to 1917, containing daily entries about Stern’s life. She documented the many trips she took into town to get ice cream and soda or to watch picture shows. She wrote also of her decision to leave school and how she spent her free time when not working. She wrote in detail about her relationships, particularly with her mother, sister, friends, and Jewish community. Sadie also wrote of contemporary events, and her final diary chronicled entry of the U.S. into World War I and the prohibition of alcohol in Springfield, Illinois. The collection also contains transcripts of the diaries and historical notes from Sybil Stern Mervis in 2021 and 2025.
Sybil Stern Mervis donated the scrapbook to the Central Illinois Jewish Communities Archives in 2021. She donated the diaries in 2025. Sybil Stern Mervis and Sadie Stern Goldman were first cousins once removed.
Repository: Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/ihlcsfa/stern-goldman-papers.pdf
PDF finding aid for Sadie Stern Goldman Papers
Submit request (Aeon)
