Jacob “Jack” E Rose

1900s–1910s

Born about 1900–1901 in Manhattan, one of the many children of Jewish immigrants Louis Rosen and Rachel Lazansky, and grew up on the Lower East Side. By about 1918 he was working as an engraver.

1920s–1930s

Married Esther "Stella" Kutner in Brooklyn on 19 August 1924. Their children Helen and Ted were born in 1930 and 1931; in 1930 the family lived on Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx, and Jack was a copper-plate engraver.

1940s–1970s

Ran his own engraving business on Nassau Street in lower Manhattan for more than three decades, producing fine stationery and invitations.

1977

Still working in the summer of 1977, when he had one of the best months of his career. Died sometime after that, apparently in the Bronx.

A Lower East Side Boyhood

Jacob "Jack" E. Rose was born in Manhattan around 1900 or 1901 (his records give dates from June 1900 to February 1901), the American-born son of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland, Louis Rosen and Rachel Lazansky. His Hebrew name was Yaakov, and he grew up in one of the Lower East Side's big families. There were more than a dozen Rosen children, from his older brother Sam, born in 1896, to William, known as Chubby, born in 1918, and at least one little sister, Helen, appears to have died in early childhood. The family moved from tenement to tenement: Clinton Street, Monroe Street, Rutgers Place, and by 1915 403 Grand Street. Around 1914 young Jacob won a prize in composition. He started calling himself Jack when his sister Gussie began going out with the man she later married, who was also named Jack.

By about 1918, when he registered for the World War I draft, Jack was a tall, slender young man with blue eyes and light hair, working as an engraver for M. B. Swarthburg on William Street. It was the trade he would practice for the rest of his life.

An Engraver's Life

On August 19, 1924, Jack married Esther "Stella" Kutner in Brooklyn, most likely at the Kenesseth Israel Beth Jacob synagogue on Blake Avenue. In 1930 they were living on Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx with their baby daughter, Helen, and Jack was working as a copper-plate engraver. Their son Ted followed in 1931.

By 1942 Jack was self-employed with his own shop at 132 Nassau Street, near City Hall, and he stayed in the neighborhood for the rest of his career, moving later to 150 Nassau Street. He was a stationery engraver, and his work ran to high-end embossed business stationery (MetLife was a client). He also did hand-engraving for wedding invitations at an office on Maiden Lane. His niece, the writer Eleanor Widmer, remembered him in her book Up from Orchard Street as a man who "had natural artistic ability and loved classical music." He also loved cheesecake.

In 1942 Jack was living at 124 East 89th Street in Brooklyn, a house that became something of a family base. His youngest brother, William, had died there in 1939, just short of twenty-one. In 1950 his sister Elsie's family was living in the house, and his aged father, Louis, and Louis's second wife were living in the basement.

Later Years

Jack kept engraving well into his seventies. In January 1975 his children Helen and Ted visited him at home, and in June 1977 Helen hosted his birthday party, for which he wrote to thank her afterward. That summer he had one of the biggest months of his career, taking in $4,485, even though his hand had grown too unsteady for script and he had to switch to printing. He died sometime after that summer, apparently in the Bronx; the exact date has not been found. One description of him in later life gives five foot ten, 140 pounds, hazel eyes, and a bald head.