This curriculum guide is created by James D. Brown, Jr. for the Illinois Labor History Society in cooperation with teachers from the metro Chicago area and local union members. The Illinois Labor History Society is a non-profit organization with a mission to preserve and promote awareness of labor history in Illinois. ILHS is staffed by volunteers. This project is also produced by volunteers and one graduate intern. The HTML version is maintained by Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures, 88 of which are digitized for the first time (62 are also available in other American Memory presentations). Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
The project seeks to compile and publish primary source accounts from the volunteers who worked with Cesar Chavez to build his farmworker movement during the period, 1962-1993.
Primary source accounts include: essays, music, online discussion, art, photos, video, cartoons, glossary, etc. The publication of the Website marks the 40th Anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike.
Harper’s Weekly is an important primary source about Chinese living in America during the 19th- century, providing information about them and their communities, and commenting on the controversies that surrounded them.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers is a project dedicated to bringing Eleanor Roosevelt's writings (and radio and television appearances) on democracy and human rights before an audience as diverse as the ones she addressed. The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers is a university-chartered research center associated with the Department of History
of The George Washington University.
Carbons to Computers aims to enrich students' understanding of several familiar themes: trade and commerce; economics; the industrial revolution; work; women's roles; technology; inventions; power; beliefs and customs; capitalism; postindustrial economy; reform movements; and change.
The Geneseo Migrant Center is an organization which provides opportunities for migrant farmworkers and their families to achieve their full potential. The Center is committed to equity for migrant farmworkers and their families by valuing diversity and understanding the value of their work, and through advocacy on their behalf.
A joint project of the Canadian Automobile Workers and the Labour Studies Program at McMaster University, this site introduces users to the early history of the Canadian auto industry. It traces the origins of industrial trade unionism, the struggles to establish collective bargaining in the 1930s and 1940s, and the decision by the Canadian locals of the United Automobile Workers to form an independent Canadian union, the Canadian Automobile Workers in the mid-1980s. It contains photos, on-line archives, essays, and teaching materials.
This site contains sixty photographs of child laborers by Hine, with their original captions.
The History Place is a private, independent, Internet-only publication based in the Boston area that is not affiliated with any political group or organization. The site was founded and is owned and published by Philip Gavin who has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern University and a Master of Science degree from Boston University. Except where noted, the articles and text appearing throughout The History Place Web site were written by Mr. Gavin.
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) has been called the greatest American documentary photographer. She is best known for her chronicles of the Great Depression and for her photographs of migratory farm workers. Below are 24 pre-World War II photographs, taken for the U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA), investigating living conditions of families hired to work in cotton fields and farms in Arizona and California.
"The Illinois Labor History Society (ILHS) was formed on August 5, 1969 in the office of the late Joseph M. Jacobs, attorney for the Chicago Teachers Union, Meatcutters, and other labor organizations.
The mission of the ILHS was set forth: It shall be the Purpose of the Illinois Labor History Society to encourage the preservation and study of labor history materials of the Illinois Region, and to arouse public interest in the profound significance of the past to the present.
To that end we have, over the years, published guidebooks by Professor William Adelman. We have produced and distributed numerous monographs on topics ranging from the Union Miners' Cemetery in Mt. Olive, Illinois, to the story of Pullman. We have established a mail order book business, currently offering books and videos to the public. We are the custodians of a National Historic Landmark, The Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois.
We provide; tours of Chicago's Labor History Sites; publication of a newsletter; and various commemorative programs, among them the annual Union Hall of Honor Awards Dinner.
We maintain this lively and well-respected website. It contains directions to various historic sites important to labor, a series of articles written in a popular style, and a model curriculum through which teachers can enrich the normal textbook fare with labor history topics and materials. Our booklist generates sales from as far away as Argentina. Our mini-museum contains photographs and memorabilia which visitors find enthralling.
We have a significant collection of books in our library, including some rare volumes. We are able to advise individuals and organizations who seek a proper repository for their historical records."
Founded in 1965, the Immigration History Research Center enriches society by preserving and promoting understanding of the history of the American immigrant experience. In doing so, it acts in partnership with various ethnic communities, historical agencies, research specialists, educators, and many others. The IHRC develops and maintains a library and archival collection, provides research assistance, produces publications, and sponsors academic and public programs. Its work supports the tripartite mission-teaching, research, and service-of its parent institution, the University of Minnesota.
This site provides a discussion board centered around the topic of labor in the movies. Members are worker educators who are interested in how workers' lives and struggles are shown in movies. Educators are also encouraged to share exxperiences with teaching labor history through film -- including syllabi, books, teaching tips, and other advice.
The CFT Labor In The Schools Committee was formed to assist teachers in reaching students with information about the history and current place of the labor movement in American democracy.
The Labor Trail is the product of a joint effort to showcase the many generations of dramatic struggles and working-class life in the Chicago area's rich and turbulent past. The Trail's neighborhood tours invite you to get acquainted with the events, places, and people -- often unsung -- who have made the city what it is today. In addition, the statewide map is just a starting point for further exploration of Illinois' labor heritage. We invite you to report new themes for research and investigation on both the city and state level.
Contact Information:
Chicago Center for Working Class Studies
c/o Chicago Labor Education Program
University of Illinois
815 West Van Buren St., Suite 110
Chicago, IL 60607
The following bibliographic library serves as an introduction to migrant farmworker literature, both fiction and non-fiction. These resources may be useful inside the classroom, for research or to increase understanding of the migrant experience in other areas.
This amazing exhibit of photographs celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Geneseo Migrant Center, which serves migrant farmworkers and their families. There are hundreds of photographs taken mostly by Elizabeth Boettger, Bill Cronin, Michael Greenlar and Roger Smith.
The Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania Labor Legacy Web Site was started in 1999 by Dr. David L. Rosenberg, Archivist, UE/Labor Archives, and John P. Montoya, University of Pittsburgh 2002, as a project within the University
Library System's Archives Service Center. The Labor Legacy Website represents a unique effort to "map" the historical terrain of the labor
movement in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania for the use of both the
academic and general public and has enjoyed support from local labor
organizations and individuals, as well as from the University.
The Samuel Gompers Papers collects, annotates, and makes available, primary sources of American labor history. Founded by Stuart Kaufman in 1974, the project has published two microfilm series of union records and nine volumes of Gompers' papers.
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. We believe that musical and cultural diversity contributes to the vitality and quality of life throughout the world. Through the dissemination of audio recordings and educational materials we seek to strengthen people's engagement with their own cultural heritage and to enhance their awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of others. Our mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document "people's music," spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987, and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has continued the Folkways commitment to cultural diversity, education, increased understanding, and lively engagement with the world of sound.
The Iowa Labor History Oral Project was initiated in 1974 by the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. For over twenty years, the Iowa Federation of Labor has funded the collection and, working with SHSI, has ensured the preservation of the rich materials recovered by the project. The Iowa Labor Collection currently consists of over 1,100 oral history interviews with Iowa trade unionists and 800 linear feet of labor records.
Sponsored by The Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee, "Still Cookin' By the Fireside" is an on-line text and photo exhibit on the history of African Americans in Food Service from the colonial period to the present.
The hundreds of images in this collection have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery. This collection is envisioned as a tool and a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers, students, and the general public -- in brief, anyone interested in the experiences of Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas and the lives of their descendants in the slave societies of the New World. Note: The images on this website are provided for educational, non-commercial purposes. They are provided for the personal use of students, teachers, scholars, and the general public. Any commercial use or publication of them is strictly prohibited.
This digital collection was produced under contract to the SchoolNet Digital Collections program, Industry Canada. It contains essays on "The Siege of '46", "Women, Work and Unions," "Unionism in Hamilton," as well as other topics. It also contains a slide show, teaching aids, and on-line archives.
The website provides a portal researchers can use to access the documentary history of labor in
Oregon and other western states. The site combines the convenience of online
searching with a carefully organized approach to research on the topic.
At the heart of the Labor Project site is a newly developed database that
allows users to search the UO's Special Collections holdings related to labor and working-class history by keyword, subject, date ranges, title, and
related authors. Users can also browse the contents of the database in eight
different labor-related topics.
Examples of archived material housed in Special Collections and referenced
in the database include documents on the timber industry in the Pacific
Northwest, arbitration papers from the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union (ILWU) and other unions, original pamphlets from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), legal documents related to the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, and extensive materials from native American tribes in Oregon.
Special Collections staff members have identified approximately 100
collections in its holdings that are relevant to the history of labor and
the working class in the Northwest. The materials include private papers,
arbitration records, corporate and organizational records, and political
material. Database searches yield an extensive description of these
individual holdings and their specific location within the UO Libraries'
Special Collections. Additional material will be added to the database as it is acquired and catalogued.
Contact Information:
For more information on the Labor Project website, contact James Fox,
(541) 346-1904, jdfox@oregon.uoregon.edu, or Alex Morrow, (541) 346-5908,
amorrow@darkwing.uoregon.edu
The UE/Labor Archives at the University of Pittsburgh contains extensive
collections of labor union records and company records, which document the
workforce, especially in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. Collections
are particularly rich for the steel industry, the electrical industry, the
building trades, service employees, white collar workers, and the printing
and food industries. Grassroots organizations, left wing and civil
liberties attorneys, and groups, which organized resistance to deindustrial-ization are also well-represented. The UE/Labor Archives notably includes over 2,500 cubic feet of historical records of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) (1936-present), at all levels of the organization. These document the historical achievements and travails of this union both regionally and throughout the United States and Canada.
This web site is sponsored by HTH, an education and advocacy organization that believes the moral premise that anyone working a 40 hour week should be able to afford some form of housing.
This site, produced by AFSCME, is a list of links to featuring online biographies and histories of women in the labor movement, women's labor songs and links to other useful sites.
The Working Class Movement Library (WCML) is a collection of English language books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives and artefacts, concerned with the activities, expression and enquiries of the labour movement, its allies and its enemies, since the late 1700s.
This is the prototype of the Open Collections Program Women Working project. This site will provide access to digitized books (over 2000), manuscripts (10,000 pages) and images (1,000) from the collections of Harvard University Libraries and Museums on the topic of women in the U.S. economy from 1870-1930.
