National Association of Wool Manufacturers Photographs

The National Associations of Wool Manufacturers (NAWM) was the first national rather than regional trade association. Its purpose was to provide a unified voice, particularly regarding tariff policy for a diversified and geographically scattered industry. The work of the NAWM was administered by a Board of Directors, an Executive Committee, a President, Secretary and Treasurer. The simple organizational structure remained essentially unchanged for its entire history.

The NAWM was not the sole association representing the wool manufacturing industry during this period. Various special interest sections of the industry organized separate associations at one time or another, but by 1930 all of these had expired. The passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act with a required code of trade practices for the entire wool textile industry brought over 90 percent of all wool manufacturers under the one original organization. The NAWM’s work was always oriented toward such issues as tariff, labeling, and other aspects of existing or potential government regulation.

To better accommodate this increased membership and facilitate the formulating and administrating of the NRA regulations, the NAWM revised its organization in 1933. The membership was divided into 13 groups, one for each particular section of wool manufacturing such as worsted menswear and top makers. The Board of Directors has at least one representative from each group. The President was chosen from outside the industry in order to act as a full-time officer, while the Executive Committee chose its own chairman who was an active wool industry executive. At this time the NAWM also set up a New York office in addition to its Boston headquarters. In April 1934 it established the Statistics Division. The new full-time President was Arthur Besse. The head if the Statistics Division was Glen F. Brown.

From 1864-1933 NAWM headquarters were in Boston. When the New York office opened in 1933 the center of activity, as reflected in these papers, seems to have shifted there. The Boston office closed in 1963. After the death of Arthur Besse in 1952 the NAWM reorganized and in 1971 joined the American Textile Manufacturers Institute. Although the NAWM’s work spanned more than a century, the records in this collection contain few working papers prior to 1930.