The Gaebler-Knight Collection is comprised of the papers of Adolph Nelson Gaebler (1863-1954), his daughter Anita Gaebler (1892-1977), and Anita’s husband Walter J. Knight (1881-1951). Adolph Gaebler’s papers are predominately business records, correspondence, and real estate papers. The papers of Anita Gaebler and Walter J. Knight are personal correspondence, mostly between the two of them before their marriage in 1914. The Adolph Gaebler Series includes business papers from a long series of entrepreneurial ventures which he launched and companies which he headed. The earliest of these date from 1883-1888 and are the books kept by Gaebler for a stenography correspondence school which he operated, first from his residence at 2607 Menard (in Soulard) and later from an office at 919 Olive Street. These accounts record student lessons, fees, and supplies. In 1887, Gaebler formed A.N. Gaebler & Co., which distributed “Independent” stylographic and fountain pens and operated from his Olive Street office. An order book for this company covering the years 1887-1888 survives. While studying medicine, Gaebler developed an abiding interest in chemistry which led him, after having already established a lucrative medical practice, to venture into the chemical business. In 1900, Gaebler formed the Hall Chemical Co., located at 602 N. 4th Street. This mail-order pharmaceutical business expanded, and in 1902 Gaebler moved it to 1421 Olive Street. In 1906, Gaebler formed another more diversified company, King Manufacturing Company, a larger mail-order firm. There are in the collection two catalogues issued by King, which offer a wide range of articles from fancy glassware to cosmetics and baking soda. There is also a catalogue from Lacassian Laboratories, a later subsidiary of King, which specialized in toiletries and perfume. Most of the business records in the collection have to do with Gaebler’s pharmaceutical business and King Manufacturing Co. in particular. As far as this company’s records are concerned, there are in the collection Minutes of Stockholders and Directors Meetings, 1943-1946; an order book, 1948-1954; and an account ledger, 1946-1954. There are also a series of records having to do with the formulas which Gaebler devised for the manufacture of his cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. There are eight formula books, the earliest dating from 1890, which list with an assigned formula number and index the formulas for all the products manufactured by first, Hall Chemical, then King Manufacturing Co. and Lacassian Laboratories. There are also applications, permits, and correspondence with the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of the Treasury. King Manufacturing Co. had to submit its formulas and labels to the Food and Drug Administration for verification, and during Prohibition a permit from the U.S. Department of the Treasury was required before “intoxicating liquor” could be used in any pharmaceutical product. Among Adolph Gaebler’s business papers is a series of correspondence and cancelled stock certificates from the R.H. Hunstock Chemical Company, which Gaebler took over in 1921 at a point of financial crisis in the company. It would appear that company funds from its South American accounts had been embezzled by one or more of the company’s agents. When Gaebler took over, all the company’s South American clients, whose payments had not been recorded on the Company’s books in St. Louis, were sent a form letter requesting that they forward to St. Louis their paid bank drafts, which would have had to have been endorsed by a company official. Copies of this correspondence with the replies from the clients (originally in Spanish with translations typed in) and the bank drafts were kept by Gaebler. The bank drafts had been endorsed by C.C. Engels, the president of the company. At least some of this money had been collected in Mexico by one Roman Alonzo, who had been acting without authorization as the company’s Mexico City branch agent. According to Gaebler’s correspondence, there was no Mexico City Branch. The history of this company’s demise is obscure. Engel continued business in St. Louis as a local agent for an out-of-town manufacturing firm, so it is not at all clear who the embezzler actually was: the correspondence only identifies Alonzo as one of the “dishonest persons” in the employ of the company. In any event, by 1922 Hunstock Chemical Co. was no longer in business. Another of Adolph Gaebler’s many business interests was real estate, in which he invested with considerable success. The collection contains the various legal papers relating to his properties both in St. Louis and California. His major properties in St. Louis were: 14th and Olive, the original site of Hall Chemical and King Manufacturing Companies; 22nd and Locust, where Gaebler built a five-story building (still standing) to house King Manufacturing Co. and its subsidiary Lacassian Laboratories; 18th and Pine, sold to the Pontiac Hotel but Gaebler continued to hold the mortgage; and Union and Bircher, which was an industrial site, and the bulk of the papers relating to this property concern Gaebler’s agreements with the Terminal Rail Road Association of St. Louis on the construction of a side-track to service Gaebler’s buildings. Besides the legal papers and correspondence associated with these properties, there are in the collection two ledgers with detailed accounts for each of the properties. One ledger contains the St. Louis accounts, the other those for California. The remainder of the Gaebler-Knight Collection is the private correspondence of Anita Gaebler and Walter J. Knight. There is a series of letters to each of them from their own friends, dating back to 1904 when Anita was only twelve and corresponding with girl friends back east where she spent her summers. Many of Walter Knight’s correspondents were friends from Alabama or New York, where he attended a business college, or from Washington, D.C., where he worked for two and a half years. There is also a regular series of letters to Walter from his father between 1912 and 1916. Both Walter and Anita were effusive writers, and during their courtship, which lasted two years until their wedding in 1914, they wrote to each other almost daily, and on some days more than once, with letters posted in both the morning and evening mails. These letters are to a certain extent proper love-letters, but they are at the same time both newsy and witty. Walter travelled extensively on business in these days before he settled in St. Louis, and Anita was caught up in the swirl of St. Louis society. These letters make a period-piece of social trivia, seen through the eyes of the thoughtful (at times pensive) but energetic and ambitious Walter, and the bubbly, vivacious, and intelligent Anita. After their wedding, the correspondence between Mr. and Mrs. Knight fell off. After Walter settled in St. Louis, they were no longer separated for extended periods of time, and their letters were mostly from friends. A series of letters survive from Dr. Gaebler’s old secretary, Agatha P. Thompson (who figured prominently in Gaebler’s business affairs) to Mrs. Knight in 1953. Miss Thompson was still coping with business details (mostly household expenses as most of the Doctor’s business interests had been sold off in 1950), and reporting to his daughter in detail on the health of the elderly Dr. Gaebler, for whom she was still caring. There is a collection of Gaebler-Knight Miscellany: invitations and dance programs (from Anita’s career as an interpretive dancer), insurance policies and household papers from the Knight home at 6377 Pershing, as well as clippings of Walter Knight’s obituaries. There are address books and documents concerning Ernest Gaebler’s (Adolph Gaebler’s father) military career. There is a photocopy of a brochure written by Walter Knight, “Gravity Never Sleeps,” which lists the buildings engineered by Walter J. Knight & Co., published in 1937.