Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America records
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Scope and Contents
Correspondence, clippings, minutes, organizing leaflets, photographs, speeches, phonographs, scrapbooks, and organizational records documenting the founding, growth, history and development of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; the activities of its officers and other leading officials; its organizing activities; and its administration.
Significant individuals represented in the collection include Sidney Hillman, Joseph Schlossberg, Jacob Potofsky, Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca, E.J. Brais, Bessie Hillman, and August Bellanca.
Among the topics covered in the collection are the men's garment industry in the U.S. and Canada; union organizing, collective bargaining, strikes and other labor disputes in both countries; records of local unions; working conditions in the U.S. garment industry; union management, finances, and legal matters; the New Deal, particularly Sidney Hillman's involvement in the National Recovery Administration; and economic mobilization during World War II, including Hillman's records from his service with the National Defense Advisory Commission and the War Production Board.
Dates
- 1914-1980
- 1920-1950 (bulk)
Creator
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (creator, Organization)
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Access
Access to some portions of the collection is restricted; contact Kheel Center reference archivist for further details.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Biographical / Historical
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the most significant union representing workers in the men's clothing industry, was founded in Chicago in 1914 as a breakaway movement from the United Garment Workers.
Under the leadership of Sidney Hillman, the ACWA grew rapidly. By the late 1920s the union had organized over 100,000 members in the major garment industry cities across the United States and Canada. The depression severely thinned its ranks, but by the mid-1930s, the union had regained sufficient organizational strength to become a leading player in the creation of the CIO.
Sidney Hillman became an influential figure in political circles and a key advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt on labor and economic issues, serving on the board of the National Recovery Administration. During World War II, Hillman was named associate director of the Office of Production Management, which assisted in mobilizing the nation's resources for the war effort.
Hillman's death in 1946 was a significant blow to the ACWA. Though the union continued to grow under his successor, Jacob Potofsky, its influence in national political and labor affairs was diminished. In 1976, the union merged with the Textile Workers of America to become the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union; In 1995 the ACTWU voted to merge with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union to form the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).
Extent
208.33 cubic feet
Abstract
Correspondence, clippings, minutes, organizing leaflets, photographs, speeches, phonographs, scrapbooks, and organizational records documenting the founding, growth, history and development of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; the activities of its officers and other leading officials; its organizing activities; and its administration.
Arrangement
Quantity:
207.5 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Correspondence, clippings, minutes, organizing leaflets, photographs, speeches, phonographs, scrapbooks, and organizational records.
General
- Contact Information:
- Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel
- Compiled by:
- Kheel Center staff
- Date completed:
- July 1990
- EAD encoding:
- Casey S. Westerman, June 2002
- Addams, Jane, 1860-1935. (subject)
- Administrative records
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (subject)
- Arbitration, Industrial -- United States
- Canada -- Ethnic relations
- Clippings
- Clothing workers -- Health and hygiene -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Clothing workers -- Health and hygiene -- United States
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Canada
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Canada
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Massachusetts -- Boston
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- New York (State) -- Rochester
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Ohio -- Cincinnati
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Ontario -- Toronto
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Québec (Province) -- Montréal
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- United States
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- United States
- Collective bargaining -- Clothing industry -- Canada
- Collective bargaining -- Clothing industry -- United States
- Correspondence
- Dewey, Thomas E. (Thomas Edmund), 1902-1971. (subject)
- Ephemera
- Ethnic relations -- Canada
- Ethnic relations -- United States
- Forṿerṭs (New York, N.Y.)
- Frankfurter, Felix, 1882-1965. (subject)
- Green, Henry. (subject)
- Industrial Workers of the World (subject)
- Industrial mobilization -- United States
- Labor disputes -- United States
- Labor policy -- United States
- Labor union locals
- Leaflets
- Lehman, Herbert H. (Herbert Henry), 1878-1963. (subject)
- Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951. (subject)
- Men's clothing industry -- Canada
- Men's clothing industry -- Illinois
- Men's clothing industry -- New York (State) -- New York
- Men's clothing industry -- Ohio -- Cincinnati
- Men's clothing industry -- United States
- Minutes
- Nation (New York, N.Y. : 1865)
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (subject)
- National Urban League (subject)
- New Deal, 1933-1939.
- New York (N.Y.) -- Economic conditions
- Phonograph records
- Photographs
- Poletti, Charles. (subject)
- Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962. (subject)
- Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945. (subject)
- Scrapbooks
- Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968. (subject)
- Socialist Party (U.S.) (subject)
- Speeches
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing trade -- United States
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing workers -- Canada
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing workers -- Ohio -- Cincinnati
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing workers -- United States
- Strikes and lockouts--United States.
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- Canada
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Canada
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- United States
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- United States
- Textile Workers Union of America (subject)
- Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972. (subject)
- Unemployed -- New York (State) -- New York
- Unemployment -- New York (State) -- New York
- United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
- United States -- Economic policy -- 1933-1945
- United States -- Ethnic relations
- Wagner, Robert F. (Robert Ferdinand), 1877-1953. (subject)
- Wallace, Henry Agard, 1888-1965. (subject)
- Williams, John E. (subject)
- Women clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- United States
- Women clothing workers -- Labor unions -- United States
- Women labor union members -- United States
- Work environment -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Work environment -- United States
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Economic aspects -- United States
- Title
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America records, 1914-1980.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by Kheel Center staff
- Date
- June 2002
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Revision Statements
- 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2007-05-29: converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002
Repository Details
Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853