Neil P. Speirs Collection of U.S Railroad Retirement Board Member Photographs

Inclusive date range: 1952-1973, undated

Bulk dates: 1960-1968



This collection consists of a photograph scrapbook and loose photographs collected by Neil P. Speirs. The photographs document his various activities as president of SUNA, assistant president of the UTU, labor member of the Railroad Retirement Board, and other activities in which he participated in the course of his work in organized labor. Mr. Speirs' personal scrapbook contains annotation identifying the people in the photographs as well as where and when they were taken. Of note in this album are four photographs of Eleanor Roosevelt at the AFL-CIO convention in Miami Beach, Florida. Many of the pictures in the scrapbook are duplicated in the loose pictures in this collection. Other notable photographs picture Mr. Speirs with President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, when the president signed an act authorizing investigation into the use of high-speed ground transportation systems. Many of the photographs are from the various meeting and conventions that preceded the creation of the UTU in 1969. There are numerous picture of Mr. Speirs with the other three union presidents that united to form the UTU. The men are Charles Luna, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, H. E. Gilbert, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers, and C. F. Lane, the president of the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen. Many of the photographs of these four men may be found in the UTU pamphlets in Collection 6215, ""=Neil P. Speirs Collection of U.S. Railroad Retirement Board Member Files, 1963-1994." Finally, there are many pictures of the participants from the labor group who participated in the U. S. President's Railroad Commission in 1960.