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International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Benjamin Schlesinger, President. Records

 Collection
Identifier: 5780/010

Scope and Contents

Topics covered in these materials include: communist activity in the garment industry unions; contract negotiations; Schlesinger's role as business manager of the Jewish Daily Forward (Chicago); labor disputes in the women's garment industry of New York City; racketeering; socialism; garment industry strikes in New York City (including the 1929 Cloakmakers' Strike and the 1930 Dressmakers' Strike); the Tom Mooney Defense Committee; relations between manufacturers' associations and the union; union conventions; union elections; union finances; and worker education.

Individuals and organizations represented in the collection include: the Amalgamated Bank of New York; the Affiliated Dress Manufacturers' Association; the AFL (including letters from William Green); the Associated Raincoat Manufacturers of New York; Brookwood Labor College; Abraham Cahan; Thomas C.T. Crain; Eugene Debs; David Dubinsky; ILGWU Locals 8, 10 and 50; Sidney Hillman; Morris Hillquit; Charles Kreindler; Salvatore Ninfo; the Rand School of Social Science; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Arnold Rothstein; Jacob H. Schiff; Mortimer L. Schiff; Norman Thomas; Samuel Untermyer; B.C. Vladeck; and the Wholesale Dress Manufacturers' Association.

Dates

  • 1928-1932.

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

Files of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) president Benjamin Schlesinger during his final term as president, from October 1928 to June 1932.

Schlesinger was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania who began working in the garment industry in Chicago as a teenager. He became a union organizer soon after and rose quickly in the ranks of the Chicago Cloakmakers' Union. He served as president of the ILGWU for a brief time in 1903, and again from 1914 to 1923. Later, he was business manager of the Jewish Daily Forward in Chicago. He died in office on June 6, 1932.

Extent

2 cubic feet

Abstract

Correspondence and subject files relating to Schlesinger's term, October 1928 to June 1932.

Arrangement

Correspondence and subject files are arranged alphabetically within each section.

Arrangement

Series I. General correspondence.
Box 1
Series II. Subject files.
Boxes 1-4
Series III. Miscellaneous items.
Box 4

Related Materials

5780/009. Benjamin Schlesinger. President's records, 1914-1923.

Quantity:

2 linear ft.

Forms of Material:

Correspondence, subject files.

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:
Robert A. Lazar
Date completed:
June, 1977
EAD encoding:
Casey S. Westerman, July 16, 2002
Title
International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Schlesinger, Benjamin, President. Records, 1928-1932.
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by Robert A. Lazar
Date
July 16, 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

Contact:
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853