Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America records
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Scope and Contents
Correspondence, clippings, minutes, organizing leaflets, photographs, speeches, phonographs, scrapbooks, and organizational records documenting the founding, growth, history and development of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; the activities of its officers and other leading officials; its organizing activities; and its administration.
Significant individuals represented in the collection include Sidney Hillman, Joseph Schlossberg, Jacob Potofsky, Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca, E.J. Brais, Bessie Hillman, and August Bellanca.
Among the topics covered in the collection are the men's garment industry in the U.S. and Canada; union organizing, collective bargaining, strikes and other labor disputes in both countries; records of local unions; working conditions in the U.S. garment industry; union management, finances, and legal matters; the New Deal, particularly Sidney Hillman's involvement in the National Recovery Administration; and economic mobilization during World War II, including Hillman's records from his service with the National Defense Advisory Commission and the War Production Board.
Dates
- 1914-1980
- 1920-1950 (bulk)
Creator
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (creator, Organization)
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Access
Access to some portions of the collection is restricted; contact Kheel Center reference archivist for further details.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Biographical / Historical
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the most significant union representing workers in the men's clothing industry, was founded in Chicago in 1914 as a breakaway movement from the United Garment Workers.
Under the leadership of Sidney Hillman, the ACWA grew rapidly. By the late 1920s the union had organized over 100,000 members in the major garment industry cities across the United States and Canada. The depression severely thinned its ranks, but by the mid-1930s, the union had regained sufficient organizational strength to become a leading player in the creation of the CIO.
Sidney Hillman became an influential figure in political circles and a key advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt on labor and economic issues, serving on the board of the National Recovery Administration. During World War II, Hillman was named associate director of the Office of Production Management, which assisted in mobilizing the nation's resources for the war effort.
Hillman's death in 1946 was a significant blow to the ACWA. Though the union continued to grow under his successor, Jacob Potofsky, its influence in national political and labor affairs was diminished. In 1976, the union merged with the Textile Workers of America to become the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union; In 1995 the ACTWU voted to merge with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union to form the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).
Extent
208.33 cubic feet
Abstract
Correspondence, clippings, minutes, organizing leaflets, photographs, speeches, phonographs, scrapbooks, and organizational records documenting the founding, growth, history and development of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; the activities of its officers and other leading officials; its organizing activities; and its administration.
Arrangement
Quantity:
207.5 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Correspondence, clippings, minutes, organizing leaflets, photographs, speeches, phonographs, scrapbooks, and organizational records.
General
- Contact Information:
- Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives 227 Ives Hall Tower Road Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheelref@cornell.edu https://catherwood.library.cornell.edu/kheel/
- Compiled by:
- Kheel Center staff
- EAD encoding:
- Casey S. Westerman, June 2002
- Addams, Jane, 1860-1935. (subject)
- Administrative records
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America--Finance. (subject)
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America--Presidents. (subject)
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Women's Dept (subject)
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Women's Dept.--Officials and employees. (subject)
- American Clothing Manufacturers of New York (subject)
- American Federation of Labor (subject)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (subject)
- American League Against War and Fascism (subject)
- Arbitration, Industrial -- United States
- Brookwood Labor College (Katonah, N.Y.) (subject)
- Canada -- Ethnic relations
- Clippings
- Clothing workers -- Health and hygiene -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Clothing workers -- Health and hygiene -- United States
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Canada
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Canada
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Massachusetts -- Boston
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- New York (State) -- Rochester
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Ohio -- Cincinnati
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Ontario -- Toronto
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Québec (Province) -- Montréal
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- United States
- Clothing workers -- Labor unions -- United States
- Collective bargaining -- Clothing industry -- Canada
- Collective bargaining -- Clothing industry -- United States
- Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.) (subject)
- Consumers' League of New York City (subject)
- Correspondence
- Dewey, Thomas E. (Thomas Edmund), 1902-1971 (subject)
- Ephemera
- Ethnic relations -- Canada
- Ethnic relations -- United States
- Forṿerṭs (New York, N.Y.)
- Frankfurter, Felix, 1882-1965. (subject)
- Green, Henry. (subject)
- Hart, Schaffner & Marx (subject)
- Hickey Freeman and Company (subject)
- Industrial Workers of the World (subject)
- Industrial mobilization -- United States
- International Fur and Leather Workers Union of the United States and Canada (subject)
- International Union, United Automobile Workers of America (CIO) (subject)
- Journeymen Tailors of America (subject)
- Journeymen Tailors of America (subject) -- Officials and employees
- Kuppenheimer and Company (subject)
- Labor disputes -- United States
- Labor policy -- United States
- Labor union locals
- Labor's Non-Partisan League (subject)
- Leaflets
- Lehman, Herbert H. (Herbert Henry), 1878-1963. (subject)
- Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951. (subject)
- Men's clothing industry -- Canada
- Men's clothing industry -- Illinois
- Men's clothing industry -- New York (State) -- New York
- Men's clothing industry -- Ohio -- Cincinnati
- Men's clothing industry -- United States
- Minutes
- Mooney Molders Defense Committee (subject)
- Nash Clothing Company (subject)
- Nash Clothing Company--Employees. (subject)
- Nation (New York, N.Y. : 1865)
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (subject)
- National Consumers' League (subject)
- National Urban League (subject)
- New Deal, 1933-1939.
- New York (N.Y.) -- Economic conditions
- Phonograph records
- Photographs
- Plumb Plan League (Washington, D.C.) (subject)
- Poletti, Charles. (subject)
- Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962. (subject)
- Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 (subject)
- Scrapbooks
- Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968. (subject)
- Socialist Party (U.S.) (subject)
- Speeches
- Steel Workers Organizing Committee (U.S.) (subject)
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing trade -- United States
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing workers -- Canada
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing workers -- Ohio -- Cincinnati
- Strikes and lockouts -- Clothing workers -- United States
- Strikes and lockouts--United States.
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- Canada
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- Canada
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- United States
- Tailors -- Labor unions -- United States
- Textile Workers Organizing Committee (subject)
- Textile Workers Union of America (subject)
- Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972. (subject)
- Unemployed -- New York (State) -- New York
- Unemployment -- New York (State) -- New York
- United Garment Workers of America (subject)
- United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
- United States -- Economic policy -- 1933-1945
- United States -- Ethnic relations
- United States. Commission on Industrial Relations (subject)
- United States. Dept. of Labor (subject)
- United States. National Defense Advisory Commission (subject)
- United States. National Defense Advisory Commission--Officials and employees. (subject)
- United States. National Recovery Administration (subject)
- United States. National Recovery Administration--Officials and employees. (subject)
- United States. National War Labor Board (1918-1919) (subject)
- United States. Navy--Procurement. (subject)
- United States. War Dept (subject)
- United States. War Production Board (subject)
- United States. War Production Board--Officials and employees. (subject)
- United States.--Womens' Bureau. (subject)
- United States.Army--Procurement. (subject)
- Wagner, Robert F. (Robert Ferdinand), 1877-1953. (subject)
- Wallace, Henry Agard, 1888-1965. (subject)
- Williams, John E. (subject)
- Women clothing workers -- Labor unions -- Organizing -- United States
- Women clothing workers -- Labor unions -- United States
- Women labor union members -- United States
- Women's Trade Union League of America (subject)
- Work environment -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Work environment -- United States
- Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring (subject)
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Economic aspects -- United States
- Title
- Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America records, 1914-1980.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by Kheel Center staff
- Date
- June 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