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Paul Abelson Papers

 Collection
Identifier: 5192

Scope and Contents

Series I., arbitration/mediaion files, arranged alphabetically by industry and Include decisions, correspondence, agreements, and other related documents.



This series includes documentation relative to Mr. Abelson's arbitration and mediation cases. It is arranged alphabetically by industry then divided into four sections: l) decisions, 2) correspondence, 3) agreements, 4) miscellaneous and clippings. Exceptions to this arrangement are the Bakery and Fur Industry's files which begin with minutes being filed first. Another variation is the Cloak and Suit Industry which includes subject files at the end of its arrangement. These were subject headings assigned by Mr. Abelson. Types of documents included in this series are: correspondence, decisions, agreements, briefs, hearings, minutes, clippings, broadsides, meeting announcements, lists of demands, and penciled notes.



Series II, subject files, includes documents, filed alphabetically by subject, not directly related to his arbitration/mediation files.



This series contains material not directly-related to arbitration/mediation cases. This group is broken down alphabetic ally-by subject and includes correspondence, lectures, minutes, notes, course outlines, reports, schedules, memos, charts, releases, articles, clippings and National Recovery-Administration documentation.



Series III, publications, contains articles and publications. Most of the publications were distributed to other locations in the Center such as AUF, AOF, and Rare Pamphlet Collection. A list of these publications is included with the location explained.



Series IV, includes decisions of other Impartial Chairman arranged alphabetically by the Chairman's name.



This series includes decisions of various Impartial Chairmen in the needle trade industries that were filed throughout the Abelson collection. The decisions are filed alphabetically by the name of the Chairman.



Series V, Includes newspaper clippings, miscellaneous and Yiddish documents and broadsides.

A substantial amount of material was identified as Professor Jesse Carpenters' and was removed and placed under collection #5490. Professor Carpenter utilized this collection while writing his book entitled, "Competition and Collective Bargaining In the Needle Trades, 1910-1967."

A separate group of agreements was removed and placed In the Center's Agreement Collection.

Dates

  • 1902-1965

Language of Materials

Collection material in English, Yiddish

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

Paul Abelson, the son of Joseph Mayer and Ruchama (Bromber) Abelson was born in Kovno, Lithuania, September 27, 1878. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1892. He received his A.B. from the College of the City of New York in 1899, his secondary diploma from the Teacher's College of Columbia University in 1900, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1906. In 1918, he received his L.L.B. from the New York Law School and was admitted to the New York Bar.

Mr. Abelson's career was most closely connected with the labor movement. In 1910, he entered the field of labor arbitration when he was appointed a member of the conciliation staff under the arbitration plan of the cloak and suit industry of New York City.

Throughout his career, he continued to serve as a labor arbitrator for many other industries including: the paper box industry, the hosiery industry, the fur, millinery, men's hat, Jewish baking, and jewelry trades. After the passage of the National Recovery Act in 1933, Abelson was appointed by President Roosevelt as government representative on seven apparel trade boards.

Abelson was a founder of the National Academy of Arbitrators and while alive was regarded as the Dean of that organization.

Abelson also served as a member of the National Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association.

He contributed numerous articles on labor, education, and civics to various magazines. He was editor-in-chief of the English-Yiddish Encyclopedia Dictionary (1915); The Dictionary of Fur Names (1921); and the author of The Seven Liberal Arts (1906), a study in medieval education.

Paul Abelson was married in 1905, to Helen Cohen in New York City. They had three children (Miriam [Mrs. Robert Ness], Ruth [Mrs. Harold Ceder], and Louise) and eight grandchildren. On November 4, 1953, he died in New York City at the age of 75.

Biographical / Historical

UNION ABBREVIATIONS

AFFFHW .- American Federation of Full-Fashioned Hosiery Workers

BCWIU - Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union of America

CHCMW - Cloth, Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union

DTWU - Doll and Toy Workers Union

IJWU - International Jewelry Workers Union

ILGWU - International Ladies Garment Workers Union

ILHPNW - International Ladies Handbag, Pocketbook and Novelty Workers

PNWA - Playthings and Novelty Workers of America

PWU - Pocketbook Workers Union

UCHC - United Cloth Hat and Capmakers of North America

UHCMW - United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union

Extent

52.5 cubic feet

Abstract

Include decisions, correspondence, clippings and other materials relating to arbitration and mediation in a range of industries.

Related Materials

Related Collections: 5437 OH: Paul Abelson Interview Conducted by Jesse Carpenter 5490: Jesse Carpenter Records 5807: Paul Abelson Additional Records 6165 mf: Paul Abelson Files on Microfilm

Quantity:

52.5 linear ft.

Forms of Material:

Papers (documents), clippings (information artifacts), decisions.

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-center
Compiled by:
Kheel Staff, March 14, 2003
EAD encoding:
Randall Miles, February 21, 2017
Title
Paul Abelson Papers
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by Kheel Staff
Date
February 21, 2017
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)

Repository Details

Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository

Contact:
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853