SPIELMAN(N)

SPIELMAN (N ), English family that contributed extensively to Jewish and English communal and cultural literature. The family was descended from adam spielman (1812–1869), a banker, who married the sister of Samuel *Montagu. Adam's three best-known sons were sir isidor spielman (1854–1925), who was the founder and director of the art exhibitions branch of the Board of Trade and represented Britain at numerous international exhibitions from 1897 onward. He organized the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition of 1887 and was president of the Jewish Historical Society, 1902–04. When Russian anti-Jewish excesses were at their height, he edited Darkest Russia, a supplement to the Jewish Chronicle (1890–92). He was knighted in 1905. marion harry alexander spielman (1858–1948), art critic, was editor of the Magazine of Art, for 17 years. He wrote on art for the Pall Mall Gazette and the Westminster Gazette, and wrote a history of the first 50 years of the London satirical weekly, Punch (1895). An authority on portraiture, he wrote The Portraits of Geoffrey Chaucer for the Chaucer Society (1901), The Portraits of Shakespeare for the Stratford Town Edition of Shakespeare's works (1907), and British Portrait Painting, 2 vols., 1910. His Iconography of Andreas Vesalius, commissioned by the Belgian government, was published in 1925. sir meyer adam spielman (1856–1936), the third son, was an educator and an inspector of Home Office Schools. He engaged in child welfare work, and was knighted in 1928 for his work on the prevention of juvenile delinquency. He was a founder and chairman of managers of a reformatory school established in 1921 for Jewish boys (converted to general use in the 1960s because Jewish child delinquency had almost disappeared). Sir Meyer held office in several Jewish charitable societies. His wife, lady (gertrude) emily spielman, the daughter of the banker George Raphael, was also prominent in social welfare and in 1919 was the first woman to be elected to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Their daughter eva marian hubback (1886–1949), educated at Cambridge, was a well-known social reformer and educator. She was the principal of Morley College in south London, which was noted for employing leading musicians, and was the author of The Population of Britain (1947). percy edwin spielmann (1881–1964), a son of Marion Spielman, was a chemist who became a leading expert on coal tar, petroleum, and road making.

add. bibliography:

odnb online for Eva Hubback; R. Sebag-Montefiore, "From Poland to Paddington: The Early History of the Spielman Family, 1828–1948," in: jhset, 32 (1990–92), 237–58; D. Hopkinson, Family Inheritance: A Life of Eva Hubback (1954); W.R. [Winifred Jessie Spielman], Gertrude Emily Spielman, 1864 – 1949: A Memoir (1950).

[John M. Shaftesley /

William D. Rubinstein (2^nd ed.)]