Harry Sweetbaum was born in Odessa, Russia, and emigrated to the United States in 1904. He grew up in New York City and received a degree in accounting from the City College of New York. He began his career as an accountant, but while employed at a silk firm changed vocations and became an importer of raw silk from the 1920s to 1941. He worked for the Han Kow Silk Co. which had facilities in Patterson, N.J., where the silk was thrown. His company used the AAA Laboratory in New York City to test silk. Sweetbaum strongly advocated the use of silk as opposed to synthetic fibers, but went out of business in 1941 due to the increase of silk imported from Japan.
From the description of Harry Sweetbaum silk industry photographs, ca. 1930-1941 [manuscript]. (North Carolina State University). WorldCat record id: 468816586
