International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Benjamin Schlesinger, President. Records
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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
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
- Clothing trade -- New York -- New York
- Clothing trade -- United States
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- New York (State) -- New York
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- United States
- Clothing workers -- New York -- New York
- Clothing workers -- United States
- Correspondence
- Forṿerṭs (Chicago, Ill.)
- Industrial relations -- New York -- New York
- Industrial relations -- United States
- Labor unions -- Clothing workers
- Labor unions and communism -- United States
- Organization files
- Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945. (subject)
- Schiff, Jacob H. (Jacob Henry), 1847-1920. (subject)
- Socialism -- United States
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing trade -- New York -- New York
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing trade -- United States
- Thomas, Norman, 1884-1968. (subject)
- Women's clothing industry -- New York -- New York
- Women's clothing industry -- United States
- Working class -- Education -- New York -- New York
- 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
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853