Strauss beginnings

Where to begin? At the beginning. Since Strauss was born in Cincinnati, our local resources seemed a logical place. I began at the Museum Center's Cincinnati Historical Society Library.

There I found references to Joseph B. Strauss (JBS) in the Victor Heintz collection. I believe from a note in the file (hand-written by Mary Ellen Heintz in the early 1970's) that JBS was Heintz' ΣAE pledge brokee at University of Cincinnati. Strauss in fact founded the chapter. Heintz became a lawyer and later an active figure in the Republican Party. He had considerable correspondence with Strauss in 1919 and 1920. Strauss sought Heintz' assistance in introducing Strauss by letter to people in decision-making positions when seeking to get contracts on bridges.

It took a couple of days to read through all the correspondence, which I then recommended to be digitized. The librarian indicated they wished to begin digitizing portions of their colletions and that this would make a good pilot.