Typed copies of correspondence and a scrapbook belonging to Esther Getz relate primarily to her early controversial insurance career, to her employer Francis D. Hirschberg, and to other contemporary events of interest to Mrs. Getz. The collection is arranged alphabetically by type of document and topic. The correspondence dates from 1895 to 1896; the scrapbook’s contents date from 1894 to 1917 with a significant gap between 1908 and 1916. The bulk of the scrapbook items dates from 1894 to 1907. Please note that the clippings do not appear in chronological order. The scrapbook has been disbound for preservation and page numbers added for filing purposes (p.1-100). The correspondence is comprised primarily of copies of letters and drafts of letters on typing paper relating to F.D. Hirschberg & Bro and its dispute with the St. Louis Board of Fire Underwriters. There are also typed drafts of articles or statements relating to the Getz controversy, presumably by Hirschberg, an article about C. J. Kehoe and a group photograph of golfers inscribed to Kehoe (an agent with Hirschberg) by L. D. Stupp, and a 1907 subpoena for F. D. Hirschberg to appear “in the matter of the investigation of the insurance companies in the State of Missouri.” The earliest part of the scrapbook relates to the controversy surrounding Mrs. Getz’s application to join the St. Louis Board of Fire Underwriters in November 1895. The St. Louis newspapers reported the news with headlines such as “Afraid of a Woman…” and “What Right Has She to Live?” Chicago newspapers and insurance industry periodicals also reported the conflict. Local public sentiment quickly aligned with the widowed Mrs. Getz and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union took up her cause (p.8). The scrapbook also contains clippings from trade periodicals pertaining to the insurance industry both nationally and locally. Of particular note are articles about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (p.93), the fire investigator’s report of Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre fire in 1903 (p.97), and several court cases relating to insurance in Missouri and the region (p.41, 72-74). There are also articles about various insurance companies, insurance rates and rate wars, and profiles of luminaries in the insurance profession throughout the scrapbook. Also included is a profile of Mrs. Getz by Marguerite Martyn, accompanied by a photograph, for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on October 18, 1917 (p.44). There are articles about Francis D. Hirschberg which include his appointment as a director in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company (p.79) and his position as treasurer with the St. Louis Aero Club, founded in February 1907, when it planned to host the Coupe Internationale des Aeronautes (p.95, The New York Herald). Even Mrs. Hirschberg made the news about naming a section of Lindell Boulevard between Vandeventer and Spring Avenue as Kenrick Place. The Hirschbergs resided at 3818 Lindell Boulevard, neighboring the residence of the Archbishop John Joseph Kain (p.46).