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Our Archive of History Sites

We've collected over 70 sites that we find will be beneficial to your research and studies. View them all.

Three miners with federal soldier prepare to surrender weapons.
View: Matewan and the Battle of Blair Mountain–WVA coal miners, 1920

What Made the Battle of Blair Mountain the Largest Labor Uprising in American History. Its legacy lives on today in the struggles faced by modern miners seeking workers’ rights

Sheldon Dick, photographer. Sitdown strikers in the Fisher body plant factory number three. Flint, Michigan. 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
View: Dec. 30, 1936: First Sit-Down Strike Begins in Flint

The Flint sit-down strike, which started on Dec. 30, 1936, represented a shift in union organizing strategies from craft unionism (organizing white male skilled workers) to industrial unionism (organizing all the workers in an industry). The sit-down strike changed the balance of power between employers and workers.

Cover Mills 1, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Lowell Mills, The Mill Girls

In 1820 Lowell, known as East Chelmsford, MA at the time, had a population of 200 and was a farming community. Thirty years later, the population had grown to 33,000 and one could find 32 textile mills in existence there. Lowell was an ideal location for these mills because it was located near the Merrimac River. The river supplied the water necessary to run these factories.

Womenworkingharvard, Labor History Resource Project
View: Women Working, 1800-1930

Though it’s a relatively recent field of study, women’s history is inscribed across all of the Harvard Library holdings gathered since 1638. By examining those holdings afresh and querying them in a new and feminist light, the curators of the Women Working collection have aggregated…

Logo Sized Loc2, Labor History Resource Project
View: America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894 to 1915

America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 consists of 150 motion pictures, 62 of which also appear in other online collections. The majority of the films are from the Paper Print Collection, while the remainder are from the George Kleine Collection, both…

Surveillance photos taken from the Exchange Building show the National Guard gathered at the center of Concord Street at the height of the 1948 meatpackers strike.
View: 1948 Meatpackers Strike

Many were home from war and wanted more than ever to live a long full life. Others had worked long days and nights during the war to feed the troops overseas as well as Americans on the home front. Some had migrated to the cities from farms and small towns looking for work.

Wbab, Labor History Resource Project
View: Who Built America Badges

Part of the City University of New York, the American Social History Project is a recognized leader in effective, engaging history education. Who Built America Badges for History Education is designed for Grade 7-12 teachers

Old photo from Chicago's history
View: Encyclopedia of Chicago

This encyclopedia appeared first as a published volume in 2004, but the published and electronic versions evolved together, part of an integrated vision of a new kind of historical encyclopedia. It includes thousands of entries, historical sources, and special features. One special feature, a map…

Logo for IWW History Project by the University of Washington
View: The IWW History Project: Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1935

This project explores the history of the IWW in its first three decades, presenting information that has never before been available. We have compiled databases of more than 1,800 strikes, campaigns, arrests, and other incidents involving IWW members and present this information both yearbook format…

Zoomin, Labor History Resource Project
View: Zoom In

Created in partnership with Education Development Center, Zoom In features 18 skill-focused, document-rich lessons on social history topics that address every era of U.S. history. These interactive inquiries engage students in reading documents closely, gathering evidence, and writing an argumentative or explanatory essay. Each lesson…

Logo for Labor Press Project from the University of Washington
View: The Labor Press Project: Pacific Northwest Labor and Radical Newspapers

This site brings together information about the history and ongoing influence of newspapers and periodicals published by unions, labor councils, and radical organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Labor newspapers have been a critical part of American labor movements since the early 19th century and an…

When Teachers Mobilize Media

When Teachers Mobilize was our first major project collecting and organizing media, oral histories, articles and subject matter covering teacher strikes, protests & rallies.

Media Cover 00020, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Schools Chicago’s Student Deserve 2012

The Chicago Teachers Union argues for proven educational reforms to dramatically improve education of more than 400,000 students in a district of 675 schools. These reforms are desperately needed and can head Chicago towards the world-class educational system its students deserve.

Vid Poem, Labor History Resource Project
View: “I Knew What I Was Doing When I Signed Up For This”, a Poem, by Amanda Girdler

The repeated argument I hear from people who are opposed to Oklahoma teachers walking out tomorrow is “we knew what we were doing when we signed up for this.” You’re right. We did. We signed up for the hardest job in the world and putting our kids first. Here’s a poem about it.

Media Cover 00017, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Schools St. Paul Children Deserve

Teaching in St. Paul Public Schools was a destination for me because I knew our schools had a gorgeous student population that reflected our world. I also found an amazing group of dedicated, talented colleagues I am honored to work alongside and represent.

Media Cover 00013, Labor History Resource Project
View: UTLA Declares Impasse July 2, 2018

The members of United Teachers Los Angeles believe that neighborhood public schools should serve as the essential anchors of our communities. As educators we see first-hand what students need in our classrooms, our school, our clinics, and our neighborhoods, and we deal with the issues that too often prevent those needs from being met.

Lowell Mill Girls

93540268 F596 2DAB 10E3F67C41D5224B, Labor History Resource Project
View: Lowell Historical Site – National Park Service

Lowell’s water-powered textile mills catapulted the nation – including immigrant families and early female factory workers – into an uncertain new industrial era. Nearly 200 years later, the changes that began here still reverberate in our shifting global economy. Explore Lowell, a living testament to the dynamic human story of the industrial revolution.

Cover Mills 7, Labor History Resource Project
View: “A CONTRADICTORY PLACE: COTTON MILLS ALONGSIDE ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORTS IN LOWELL MASSACHUSETTS.”

The film describes the extraordinary anti-slavery efforts taking place in the mid-19th century in Lowell. Forrant and Grooms visit the sites that still exist in downtown Lowell where abolitionist activity occurred and where freedom seekers operated businesses.

Cover Mills 6, Labor History Resource Project
View: Lowell Mill Girls, by Popflock

The Lowell mill girls were young female workers who came to work in industrial corporations in Lowell, Massachusetts, during the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

Cover Mills 5, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Lowell Mill Girls

In the early 19th century the United States of America began to experience many changes. In parts of the country there was a shift from an agrarian society to an industrial society.

Cover Mills 4, Labor History Resource Project
View: How did the lowell system affect the lives of young, unmarried women in the united states?

In the early 19th century the United States of America began to experience many changes. In parts of the country there was a shift from an agrarian society to an industrial society.

Cover Mills 3, Labor History Resource Project
View: How did the Lowell system contribute to the industrialization of the united states?

Lowell built on the advances made in the British textile industry, such as the use of the power loom, to industrialize American textile production. He was the first factory owner in the United States to create a textile mill that was vertically integrated.

Postal Workers Strike

Vid Postal, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Strike That Couldn’t Happen, The Great Postal Strike of March 1970

APWU remembers the Great Postal Strike of March 1970. For more background on the successful wildcat strike that earned postal workers the right to bargain collectively for better pay and benefits.

Vid Postal Apwu, Labor History Resource Project
View: March 18, 1970: Postal Workers Strike

The first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the Postal Service began on March 18, 1970, with a walkout of letter carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan who were demanding better wages.

Cover Postal, Labor History Resource Project
View: In March of 1970, Postal Workers Suddenly Walked Off the Job. Even President Nixon Was Surprised.

“Wildcat” strikes, like the one that teachers used effectively in West Virginia in February/March of this year, are when union members walk off the job despite the wishes of their leadership. By definition, they are something uncontrollable and spontaneous.

Cover Postal2, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Day the Mail Stopped

The wildcat Postal strike that began on March 18, 1970 signaled the end of collective begging and the beginning of collective bargaining that raised hundreds of thousands of postal workers, craft and management, from poverty level wages to middle class wage earners.

#Women Labor

Womenworkingharvard, Labor History Resource Project
View: Women Working, 1800-1930

Though it’s a relatively recent field of study, women’s history is inscribed across all of the Harvard Library holdings gathered since 1638. By examining those holdings afresh and querying them in a new and feminist light, the curators of the Women Working collection have aggregated…

Womenandsocial, Labor History Resource Project
View: Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000, is a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women’s history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, the collection seeks to advance scholarly…

#Research Collections

Media Cover 00013, Labor History Resource Project
View: UTLA Declares Impasse July 2, 2018

The members of United Teachers Los Angeles believe that neighborhood public schools should serve as the essential anchors of our communities. As educators we see first-hand what students need in our classrooms, our school, our clinics, and our neighborhoods, and we deal with the issues that too often prevent those needs from being met.

Media Cover 00017, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Schools St. Paul Children Deserve

Teaching in St. Paul Public Schools was a destination for me because I knew our schools had a gorgeous student population that reflected our world. I also found an amazing group of dedicated, talented colleagues I am honored to work alongside and represent.

Media Cover 00020, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Schools Chicago’s Student Deserve 2012

The Chicago Teachers Union argues for proven educational reforms to dramatically improve education of more than 400,000 students in a district of 675 schools. These reforms are desperately needed and can head Chicago towards the world-class educational system its students deserve.

Media Cover 00021, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Schools Chicago’s Student Deserve 2.0

In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) issued the groundbreaking report, The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve. The report provided a counter-narrative to ideas popular among corporate education reformers (or de-formers, as some like to say).

Media Cover 00002, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Red State Revolt, The Uniqueness of Arizona’s Red for Ed Teacher’s Movement

The ongoing Red for Ed movement in Arizona sparks an interesting discussion on its place as a social movement. This thesis examines the movement in close detail, particularly in regard to how it fits within the social movement literature’s insider/outsider framework.

Media Cover 00004, Labor History Resource Project
View: The Making of a Teachers’ Union: The National Education Association, USA, 1957-1973

Not long ago, in the pages of this journal, I argued a number of propositions about the current state of historical research in the area of teacher unionism. One of those propositions was that a full explanation of the history of teacher union activity in the U.S.A. quite likely would require a three-pronged analysis involving the local, state, and national arenas.

Media Cover 00001, Labor History Resource Project
View: Teacher Unions conflict in New York City, 1935–1960

While studies of the New York City Teachers Union (TU) generally attribute its eventual demise to the Red Scares of the 1940s and 1950s, this article situates the TU in the history of New York City teachers associations more generally.

Media Cover 00003, Labor History Resource Project
View: NEA Higher Education: 150 Years and Growing

In 2007, the National Education Association celebrated its 150th year. Over this time, NEA has been a driving force in education at all levels.

Media Cover 00005, Labor History Resource Project
View: FORESHADOWING THE SEVENTIES: TEACHER MILITANCY AND THE NEA, 1900 – 1922

If the 1960’s were known as the era of vigorous student militancy in most sectors of American education, the 1970’s may well go down in history as the decade of the angry teacher.

Photo Galleries

#Department of Labor

Media Cover 00010, Labor History Resource Project
View: 2019 CES Union Membership Report

In 2019, the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions—the union membership rate—was 10.3 percent, down by 0.2 percentage point from 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Media Cover 00011, Labor History Resource Project
View: 2019 CES Major Work Stoppages Report

In 2019, there were 25 major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers and lasting at least one shift, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Between 2010 and 2019 there were a total of 154 work stoppages, averaging 15 stoppages a year.

Media Cover 00012, Labor History Resource Project
View: 2018 CES Major Work Stoppages Report

In 2018, there were 20 major work stoppages involving 485,000 workers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of major work stoppages beginning in 2018 was the highest since 2007 (21 major work stoppages). The number of workers involved was the highest since 1986 (533,000 workers).

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