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Jack Sinykin papers

 Collection
Identifier: umja0099

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of materials related to Jack Sinykin's two businesses: Cinderella Cosmetics, and Master Eye Foundation/LaSalle Kennels. Materials related to Cinderella Cosmetics include correspondence, publicity booklets, photographs, and recipe cards for the cosmetics. Materials related to Master Eye Foundation include photographs, correspondence, general publicity, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks with clippings, and postcards. All materials date between 1926 and 1983.

Dates

  • Creation: undated, 1926-1983

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open for use in the Elmer L. Andersen Library reading room.

Copyright

This collection may be protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials. Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provision of the copyright law.

Biographical / Historical

John L. "Jack" Sinykin was born in 1891 in Lithuania and came to the United States in 1912. He worked with his family's successful cattle ranch and trained horses in Souta Dakota before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota. In the 1920s he founded a cosmetics firm, Cinderella Cosmetics, located in an art deco building on University Avenue in Saint Paul. Despite his ties to Hollywood and subsequent successful starlet endorsements (including publicity stills with a young Loretta Young), the business eventually folded.

In the early 1920s, Sinykin founded LaSalle Kennels in Wayzata, Minnesota and began training guide dogs, importing his first German Shepherd from Germany. He was said to have trained more than 3,000 dogs personally. Sinykin trained the very first guide dog in the United States in 1926 for Senator Thomas D. Schall, named Lux of La Salle. Sinykin worked to bring Lambert Kreimer to the United States for a period of two years; Kreimer was in charge of the German goverment school for training dogs at Munich after the first World War. Together they developed a training routine for guide dogs. Sinykin also began breeding a special strain of dogs, called the La Salle strain, building up attributes required for guide dog work. The breed is recognized by the American Kennel Clubs Association.

Sinykin founded Master Eye Foundation, a charity that paid for training guide dogs as well as for teaching blind owners how to use guide dogs. Dogs were never sold to blind persons, but were financed through fundraising and charity, and Sinykin trained dogs for people regardless of race, religion, or age. He pioneered teaching blind youth to use guide dogs, as well as those who were blind and deaf.

Sinykin had a wife, Genevive, and two sons, Marvin and Gerald. He passed away in November of 1983.

Extent

1.3 Cubic Foot (3 boxes -- 2 Hollinger boxes, 1 oversize box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection consists of the business papers of John L. "Jack" Sinykin, a Jewish Minnesotan entrepreneur who pioneered the use of guide dogs for the blind through LaSalle Kennels and the non-profit Master Eye Foundation.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated in 2017 by Nancy Sinykin. Materials added in 2018 from Catherine Oskow.

Title
Jack Sinykin papers, 1926-1983
Status
Completed
Author
Kate Dietrick
Date
July 2017
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Collecting Area Details

Contact The Upper Midwest Jewish Archives Collecting Area

Contact:

612-625-0192