The Samuel Simeon Fels Papers document the activities of one of Philadelphia's foremost twentieth-century businessmen and philanthropists. The collection includes business records of Fels & Co., manufacturers of Fels-Naptha soap, of which Fels was president from 1914 until his death in 1950. The bulk of the papers concern Fels' philanthropic support for Jewish, civic, educational, medical, and musical activities. The papers also contain records of the Samuel S. Fels Fund, established in 1936, and continuing today to promote "activities or projects of a scientific, educational or charitable nature."

The Correspondence series (Boxes 1-14), 1889-1957, is comprised primarily of Fels' personal letters and business correspondence, 1909-1950. Also present is a small group of personal letters, 1889-1938, of Jennie May Fels, whom he married in 1890, and correspondence, 1939-1957, of the Samuel S. Fels Fund.

The letters reflect Fels' philanthropic services, which included support for the Jewish community. Fels helped to found the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1884, the Federation of Jewish Charities in 1901, and the Allied Jewish Appeal in 1938. He also contributed to projects in Palestine, including the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station from 1914, the Palestine Economic Corporation from its founding in 1925, and the Hebrew Institute of Technology at Haifa from 1940. In 1934 he became a supporter of the Refugee Economic Corporation, and helped many Jews to emigrate from Western Europe before and during World War II. Among these were physicist James Franck, whose research on photosynthesis at the University of Chicago Fels also supported.

The letters also reflect Fels' interest in civic affairs and government reform. In 1904 Fels joined other prominent Philadelphians to recommend the establishment of the Committee of Seventy, a citizens' committee dedicated to municipal reform in Philadelphia. That same year he became involved with the National Municipal League. Fels helped to establish Philadelphia's Bureau of Municipal Research in 1908, the Philadelphia Vacant Lots Association in 1917, and the Crime Prevention Association in 1932. He was involved in numerous other citizens' organizations in Philadelphia. A letter of 17 July 1916, signed by Woodrow Wilson, designates Fels an elector for the Pennsylvania Democratic ticket. He was also named a delegate- at-large to the Democratic National Convention in 1936. Fels gave financial support to the NAACP from 1912, a study of unemployment by Swarthmore College in 1930, the League of Nations in 1930, and the establishment of a United Nations Council in 1944. The correspondence also reveals that, beginning in 1939, Fels supported research in industrial and labor relations by the American Law Institute. In 1944 he became a member and supporter of the Committee to Promote Industrial Peace.

Fels corresponded with and gave financial assistance to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1943, and to Philadelphia's Ethical Culture School from 1946, both of which were dedicated to the concept of the "open mind" in education. From 1925 he was the director of the Mastbaum Loan and Service System, which gave loans and financial support to medical students, teachers, musicians, and others.

Fels' interest in the medical field is reflected by his support for research in growth and development, pneumonia, nutrition, diet, and cancer. He gave assistance to the training school for the feeble-minded in Vineland, New Jersey, from 1903. From 1918 he also supported studies in aging and human fertility at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy. There is a significant amount of correspondence with Lester W. Sontag, director of the Fels Research Institute for the Study of Human Development at Antioch, Ohio, which was established with Fels' support in 1929. Fels also gave financial assistance to the Tumor Clinic at the Jewish Hospital from 1930, and, from 1932, to the Research Institute of Cutaneous Medicine of Philadelphia, which was working with pneumonia. In 1934 he began support for the Fels Research Institute at Temple University Medical School, where emphasis was upon research and teaching in gastroenterology. He assisted, from 1934, the research efforts on cancer at the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. He also gave money to the Medical School of the University of North Carolina from 1939-1947 for their work on parasitic diseases, and from 1939, to Yale University's Laboratory of Primate Biology, founded by Robert M. Yerkes.

He was interested in other scientific research as well, and gave support for projects at the University of Chicago from 1939 for work on photosynthesis and on protein structure. He also donated the Fels Planetarium to Philadelphia's Franklin Institute in 1930.

The correspondence also reveals Fels' generous support for music and musicians. He gave financial assistance to the National Opera Association and the Academy of Music, and was a director of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association from 1915-1935. He also supported violinist Iso Brisselli from the age of eleven, who lived in the Fels household as a ward of Mr. and Mrs. Fels. There is also correspondence with Samuel Barber, 1939, and with Max Aranoff, to whom Fels gave support to found the New School of Music in 1943.

The file also reflects Fels' financial interests and investments in various businesses, including: The American Transportation Co., Curtis Publishing Co., Endura Manufacturing Co., Felsinger-Boette Shoe Co. (later F. C. Church), Hamilton Gas Co., Heatless Light Corporation, Mason Alfalfa Process Co., National Cloak and Suit Co., New York Post, Inc., Palestine Orange Planters, Prebuilt Housing Corporation, Queen Anne Fur Farms, Survey Associates, Inc., and West Indies Coconut Estates, Inc. (later Baker Coconut).

Following the regular correspondence are folders containing congratulatory and other letters pertaining to Fels' being named recipient of the Philadelphia Award in 1948, the celebration of his 90th birthday in 1950, as well as special awards and honors, 1931-1950, which he received.

The Samuel S. Fels Fund section, 1939-1957, of the Correspondence series contains letters of Frederick P. Gruenberg, the Fund's Secretary, and others, primarily concerning its financial interests. The Baltimore Plan Letters, 1945, 1949, concern that city's urban housing program and its possible use as a model for Philadelphia. Iso Brisselli's correspondence, 1941-1950, contains material about the Fund and also about family matters. The James Coleman folder consists of letters, 1948-1955, about the financial support for Fels' former butler. The letters, 1941, 1951, about the Community Forest, reveal Fels' interest in creating a recreation and municipal forest in the Southeastern section of Philadelphia. The file on Foundations, 1944-1949, concerns funding and support for various foundations, and meetings with administrators of foundations, mostly in New York. The Governmental Research Association folder contains correspondence, 1939, 1944-1948, with various organizations interested in municipal research. The file on labor relations, 1943-1948, reveals Fels' interest in the Hutch-Burton-Ball Federal Industrial Relations Bill and possible fund support of a labor-relations research project. The Mastbaum file, 1949-1950, contains requests for loans. Letters from the National Municipal League, 1944-1946, discuss arrangements for their National Conference on Government held in Philadelphia in 1946. The file on Soil in Construction, 1945-1950, concerns the use of stabilized soil as a construction material in low-cost housing projects. The Fannie B. Young folder contains material, 1951-1953, dealing with the financial arrangements for support of Fels' former laundress. The Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1941-1947, concerns loans by the Fund, financial interests, and other business matters.

The Publications series (Boxes 15-16) contains notes, drafts, and correspondence concerning Fels' book This Changing World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933), his pamphlet "A Layman's Program for Peace" (reprint from the New York Times Magazine, 1943), and some miscellaneous writings, mostly about education, war, and plans for peace.

The Fels & Co. series (Boxes 17-19) includes correspondence of the Company's Executive Committee, 1952-1959, concerning growth, production, and sales; and of the Board of Directors, 1952-1965, about dividends, profits, and arrangements for the sale of the Company to Purex Corporation in 1964. Minutes of the Board of Directors, 1914-1965, discuss operation, production, sales, costs, advertising, and sale of the business. An evaluation of Fels & Co., 1943, at the request of the Fels Fund, reports and offers recommendations concerning the operation of the business. Annual reports, 1951-1964, provide yearly financial summaries of the business.

The Financial Records (Boxes 20-31), 1904-1954, consist of Fels' personal tax returns and related papers, 1911-1950; his personal and business bank books, 1921-1950; bills and reciepts, 1904-1950; miscellaneous stock and insurance certificates, 1909-1923, 1937; estate papers, including correspondence about Fels' financial affairs, 1951-1954, and accounts of the estate, 1949-1951; and printed material from various companies and concerns in which Fels had financial interests.

A small group of Legal Papers (Box 31), 1916-1952, contains miscellaneous deeds, agreements, and estate papers.

The Biography series (Box 32), 1950-1973, includes a group of letters on the death of Fels, as well as correspondence and some working papers concerning publication of a Fels biography, written by Dale Phalen in 1969.

The Miscellaneous series (Boxes 33-36) contains clippings, photos, blueprints, printed material, records, and scrapbooks concerning various projects and interests of Fels.

Series 8 (Boxes 37-43) is comprised of Additional Material that was donated to the Society in two later accessions from the Samuel Simeon Fels Fund. The material is separated into three subseries. The first, Illustrations, is made up of twelve woodblock mounted copper plates pertaining to Fels. The Miscellaneous subseries consists of additional material pertaining to anniversaries of the Fels Fund and its institutions. The largest of the three subseries, Correspondence & Reports, also consists of supplementary material for the earlier accession, and includes documentation on various projects and interests of the Fels Fund. Of particular note is information on the Crime Prevention Association, established by Fels and Charles Edwin Fox in 1932 as a community-based social service agency.

Series 9 (Box 44) consists of material donated by Frederick P. Gruenberg, who served as the director of the Samuel S. Fels Fund from 1944 to 1958. The series is primarily incoming and outgoing correspondence of Samuel Fels pertaining to the Fund and its projects. Also included in the series are notes and drafts of a biography of Fels, Fels Fund printed material, and a small amount of documentation on the dedication of the Jennie May Fels Auditorium at the Settlement Music School.

While this material should not been integrated into the older accessions because of its different donor, it provides additional material on topics of interest already covered in the collection. There is a fair amount of correspondence regarding the Crime Prevention Association already mentioned in the discussion of Series 8. Another topic of particular interest covered in this series is ongoing correspondence on the Fels' relationship with Iso Briselli, a citizen of the Soviet Union, who was brought over by Carl Flesch to study violin at the Curtis Institute of Music here in Philadelphia. Samuel Fels, and his wife, Jennie May, soon became young Briselli's benefactors, and there is much correspondence in this series pertaining to their relationship with him and to his difficulties with re-entry into the United States. Mr. Fels named Briselli the first member of the Samuel S. Fels Fund when he founded it, and Briselli helped Fels realize that the arts needed just as much support and funding as the Fund's original focus of medicine and education. Briselli has been the president of the Fund since 1990 and continues to work for cultural development of the arts in Philadelphia.