Documenting Labor Inside and Out
Labor Culture
The Lives of Workers
This exhibit has focused primarily on the records of labor unions and
other labor organizations such as the Solidarity Committee of the Capital District.
However, documenting labor does not stop there. Also of interest to scholars of the
labor movement are the many materials that document the culture and social atmosphere
in which workers live and work. As a result, the personal records of just one
union member, particularly if he or she was active in his or her community, may contain a
gold mine of materials documenting the life of a union member off the job and the
community groups in existence in the various towns and cities that were home to
large numbers of workers.
The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives
has only begun to document this aspect of labor history through the collections
held in its Archives of Public Affairs
and Policy, and is actively
seeking to expand its labor-related holdings to include not just the records of labor
unions, but of individual labor activists, groups that focus on the needs of workers and
advocate public policy or other changes on their behalf, and of social organizations that
were comprised mainly of working classes or specifically catered to the needs and interests
of workers.
In May 2001, the Department of Special Collections and Archives acquired the papers of Norman Studer. This collection is currently being processed and is not yet available to researchers. When made available, this collection will provide a wealth of information for researchers in many disciplines. Included in it are numerous photographs and other records relating to Camp Woodland, a camp in the Catskill mountains attended by children of union members; records relating to the Downtown Community School in New York City; and approximately two hundred reel-to-reel tapes documenting many aspects of folk life and social culture. |
