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United Federation of Teachers Hans Weissenstein Negatives

Call Number

PHOTOS.019.001

Dates

1949-1977, inclusive
; 1970-1974, bulk

Creator

United Federation of Teachers (Role: Donor)
Kolodny, Jules (Role: Donor)

Extent

8 Linear Feet in 8 record cartons

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

The photographs in this collection were taken by Hans Weissenstein, a commercial photographer, for the Teachers Guild and later the United Federation of Teachers (American Federation of Teachers, Local 2). The images depict public school teachers and associated personnel in New York City. The collection consists of a total of 22,110 black and white photographic negatives arranged in 1,364 shoots that span the years 1949 to 1977, but are concentrated in the early 1970s. These images document the UFT and its activities, chapters and members, and New York City schools and students. A small, but significant number of images concern one of the UFT's predecessor unions, the Teachers' Guild.

Historical Note

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was founded in March 1960, in New York City. The UFT immediately began its campaign to gain collective bargaining rights and won a promise from the New York City School Board of a collective bargaining election in the 1960-1961 school year. When the Board failed to honor its pledge, a one-day work stoppage and broad support from other unions forced the issue. The election, in which the National Education Association (NEA) and the Teachers' Union stood in opposition to the UFT, was held in December 1961; the UFT won. Teachers swelled the ranks of the new union, and soon specialized chapters were created to accommodate other categories of school employee such as laboratory technicians, school secretaries, psychologists, guidance counselors, and para-professionals. When the UFT's president, Charles Cogen, was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in 1964, he was succeeded by Albert Shanker, who served as president of the UFT from 1964 until 1986. Albert Shanker's tenure coincided with one of the most challenging eras in the history of New York City schools, a time characterized by rapidly changing demographics, racial conflict, and new demands from parents and community-based groups, overcrowded and dilapidated buildings, teacher shortages and citywide fiscal crises.

By the mid-1960s the UFT had more than 50,000 members and was the largest local union in the AFL-CIO. The union responded to changing conditions in the schools by backing the More Effective Schools (MES) program, aimed at improving teaching methods in ghetto schools, and other innovative programs. But by September 1967, when contract negotiations with the Board of Education broke down, the UFT teachers were driven to strike to achieve an increase in wages and benefits. In the wake of the strike the union was fined and Albert Shanker sentenced to fifteen days in prison for violation of New York State's "Taylor Law," which bans strikes by public employees. Earlier in the year the city had agreed to implement a school decentralization plan in exchange for increased state funding. The plan, which created three experimental school districts in East Harlem, the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Ocean Hill-Brownsville in Brooklyn, was greeted with enthusiasm by African-American and Latino parents who hoped for a greater voice in their children's education. The UFT, on the other hand, feared that community control of schools would undermine teachers' hard-won rights and weaken the union's bargaining power. Bitter conflict ensued, resulting first in a walk-out by 350 teachers in Ocean Hill-Brownsville in May of 1968, and, in September 1968, a citywide teachers strike. Albert Shanker was again sentenced to jail for 15 days for defying a court order to end the strike. An uneasy settlement, involving a state-appointed trustee in Ocean Hill-Brownsville and reinstatement of displaced teachers, left a legacy of distrust between the union and some community activists and scarred race relations in the city for many years.

In 1972 Shanker was a central figure in negotiating the merger of the AFT and the National Education Association (NEA) in New York State. The resulting organization, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), brought more than 100,000 upstate teachers into the labor movement and was a rare example of close and amicable cooperation between the two major national organizations representing teachers. In 1974 Shanker was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers. Retaining his position as UFT president for some years, he went on to play a key role in re-establishing New York City's financial stability after the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s. He was succeeded as president of the UFT by Sandra Feldman in 1986, and died in 1997 after a long struggle with cancer.

The UFT had its origins in the Teachers' Union (TU) of New York City, and the Teachers' Guild. The Teachers' Union was organized in 1916 and chartered as Local 5 of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). A growing political struggle within its ranks between a left-wing dominated by members of the Communist Party and their sympathizers, and a more moderate group consisting of Socialists, liberals and less ideologically-inclined teachers resulted in a split in 1935, when the TU's president, a moderate, withdrew with a majority of the membership to found the Teachers' Guild. In 1941 the AFT revoked the Teachers' Union's charter. In the succeeding years the TU was weakened by McCarthy-era persecution and the increasingly successful organizing efforts of the rival Teachers Guild (and later the United Federation of Teachers). It went out of existence in 1964.

The Teachers' Guild, born in 1941, when it won recognition by the American Federation of Teachers, addressed the problems of a fragmented workforce divided into small teachers' organizations representing a multitude of ethnic and religious groups, geographical areas and distinct school levels (elementary, junior high school and high school), and began the long struggle for collective bargaining rights in the New York City school system. A job action initiated by militant leaders of the High School Teachers Association (HSTA) in 1959, gave the Guild an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to building solidarity among all categories of teachers. David Selden, then the Guild's only full-time organizer (and later president of the American Federation of Teachers), enlisted the help of younger Guild Board members such as junior high-school teachers George Altomare and Albert Shanker. After month-long picket lines at schools across the city, substantial gains were won by the high-school teachers, and bridges had been built which would eventually lead toward merger between the Guild and the HSTA. That merger was effected in March 1960, with Guild president Charles Cogen taking over as president of the newly-formed United Federation of Teachers.

Arrangement

Series are arranged chronologically, except for Series X, Individuals, which is arranged alphabetically by last name of the most prominent individual pictured.

The files are grouped into 28 series:

Missing Title

  1. I, Administration and Services
  2. II, Ceremonies
  3. III, Chapters
  4. IV, Committees
  5. V, Conferences
  6. VI, Contracts and Negotiations
  7. VII, Dedicated Days/Weeks/Celebrations
  8. VIII, Demonstrations/Rallies
  9. IX, Elections and Voting
  10. X, Individuals
  11. XI, Legislative and Government
  12. XII, Meetings
  13. XIII, Officers and Official Business,
  14. XIV, Parents
  15. XV, Political
  16. XVI, Programs
  17. XVII, Publicity
  18. XVIII, Retired Teachers
  19. XIX, School Districts,
  20. XX, Schools/Students/Teachers
  21. XXI, Special Education
  22. XXII, Strikes
  23. XXIII, Training, Certification, and Workshops
  24. XXIV, Miscellaneous
  25. XXV, Predecessor Union: Teachers' Guild
  26. XXVI, Other Teachers' Organizations
  27. XXVII, Other Labor Organizations
  28. XXVIII, Other Organizations

Scope and Content Note

The United Federation of Teachers Hans Weissenstein Negatives Collection is comprised of 22,110 black and white negatives (mostly 120mm format) shot by commercial photographer Hans Weissenstein (aka Whitestone Studios) for the Teachers Guild and United Federation of Teachers. These images document the activities and meetings of UFT chapters (including those for non-teacher school employees), demonstrations of UFT members, schools, students, and teachers; dinners, luncheons, award ceremonies, and scholarship presentations; dedications, memorial services, and check presentations, as well as holidays and other "dedicated days" and weeks that mark the regular rhythm of organizational life and punctuate the school year. The Collection also contains images depicting professional development via training and workshops, and the UFT's relationship to New York City and state politics and politicians. In addition, a small, but significant portion of the Collection reflects the rising consciousness of ethnic identity among students, teachers, and parents, as well as some of its attendant tensions in New York City schools, such as the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis. In addition, the Collection offers a small amount of visual documentation of the Teachers' Guild, a UFT predecessor union.

The basic unit of this collection is the "shoot" - that is, a single image or a group of images shot at one particular event or related group of events. Each of these shoots has been identified and described in a separate entry that includes a date, if known, shoot description (derived from caption information inscribed by Weissenstein on the original negative sleeve). Each image within a shoot has also been assigned an item number (e.g., the third image in shoot number 500 would be #500-03); these frame numbers are inscribed on the sleeves in which the negatives are stored. (Note that these assigned item numbers are not necessarily same as the numbers printed on the negative frames themselves.) Where multiple negatives come in strips (as in 35mm format), frame numbers have been assigned from left to right, in ascending order.

The shoots are listed in topical series-for the most part in chronological order. The same shoot may (and often does) appear in several series lists, when its subject content falls into more than one category.

The collection includes 151 black and white prints, 83 of which have identified matching negatives.

Series I: Administration and Services. The UFT's own administrative offices are included in this series, as well as courses for UFT members, such as high school equivalency and college application classes for para-professionals.

Series II: Ceremonies. A diverse range of images documenting award ceremonies, scholarship presentations, dedications, memorial services, and official dinners and luncheons. Includes images documenting Albert Shanker's release from jail (after being imprisoned under the Taylor Law) and the following celebratory reception.

Series III: Chapters. Features specific UFT chapters such as Para-Professionals, School Secretaries, Guidance Counselors and local chapters. The majority of these images document the activities of the Para-Professionals.

Series IV: Committees. UFT committees, usually shown in meetings.

Series V: Conferences. UFT conferences, such as the annual Spring Conference and MES (More Effective Schools program) conferences.

Series VI: Contracts and Negotiations. Bargaining sessions and contract signings at the NYC Board of Education and other locations.

Series VII: Dedicated Days/Weeks/Celebrations. Holidays and dedicated day/week celebrations, mostly shot in schools. Most commonly depicted are Puerto Rican Discovery Day, Black History events, and Chinese New Year celebrations. Highlights include student guides showing African-American history museums they created and reading aloud poems by Langston Hughes. Also included are images showing a New York City public school observing Earth Day the first year this event was celebrated.

Series VIII: Demonstrations/Rallies. Demonstrations shot outside of school board meetings, City Hall, Gracie Mansion (the official residence of New York City mayors), and individual schools. These images include a protest by the Jewish Defense League against radio host, Julius Lester, after an anti-semitic poem was read on his radio broadcast, shots of an apparent counter-protest, and demonstrators being arrested by the police. Other highlights are a mock-funeral procession to City Hall, demonstrations calling for traffic lights, and a number of events with demonstrators carrying picket signs in different languages. This series also encompasses images related to vigils, boycotts, and jailing of strikers.

Series IX: UFT Elections and Voting. Shots of individual candidates, ballot counting, and UFT members voting in chapter, district and other elections.

Series X: Individuals. Arranged alphabetically by last name of the most prominent individual listed in the shoot caption. Includes portraits of single individuals, as well as images of named individuals in groups. While most of the identified individuals are UFT (or one of its predecessor organization's) officers (such as Albert Shanker, Charles Cogen, Jules Kolodny, and David Selden) or members, leaders of other unions or labor organizations (such as Cesar Chavez and George Meany), New York City and state and national politicians (including Bella Abzug, Herman Badillo, Shirley Chisholm, Jacob Javits, Edward Koch, and Nelson Rockefeller), and prominent civil rights leaders (such as Bayard Rustin and Whitney Young) are also represented.

Series XI: Legislative and Government. NYC Board of Education meetings, budget hearings, and various other legislative or government hearings and related events.

Series XII: Meetings. UFT mass meetings, chapter meetings held at schools and other locations, as well as some meetings sponsored by other organizations and attended by UFT members and/or staff. Many of the accompanying captions identify speakers and/or topics of the meetings, as well as locations.

Series XIII: Officers and Official Business. Chapter chairperson meetings and delegate assemblies are documented. Highlights include images of the presentation of the UFT's charter from the American Federation of Teachers.

Series XIV: Parents. Parental involvement in education, including parent-teacher associations and parent participation programs.

Series XV: Political. Political action committees, demonstrations at national political party conventions, and demonstrations of solidarity, with the UFT lending support to other labor organizations such as Painters District Council 9, the United Farm Workers' (grape boycott), and the Social Service Employees Union (AFSCME, Local 371).

Series XVI: UFT Programs. Meetings, conferences and courses sponsored by the MES (More Effective Schools) and QuEST (Quality Educational Standards in Teaching) programs make up the bulk of this series. Also included are images documenting drug education programs for students and students getting tested for sickle cell anemia at a clinic.

Series XVII: Publicity. Press conferences make up the majority of these images. Also included are a few shoots showing radio interviews and tapings of television shows.

Series XVIII: Retired Teachers. Retired teachers and their organizations from both New York City and New York State.

Series XIX: School Districts. Meetings or events concerning specific school districts. All images have a school district named in the photographer-provided caption, and captions identify many individuals as well.

Series XX: Schools/Students/Teachers.Schools and students identified by school name and/or number, as well as more "generic" images of teachers and classroom scenes. Names of teachers or selected students are included in some captions. Many images show students performing in school plays or at work in the classroom. Highlights include: the public school for Rikers Island prison with male and female students engagiedin vocational training and legal education courses; students learning English, with ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teaching guidelines on the bulletin boards; graffiti and damage to school buildings; students attending a class in a teacher's apartment; an attendance counselor visiting the homes of students.

Series XXI: Special Education. Features demonstrations and rallies on behalf of education for disabled students and improvement of education for deaf students, as well as events such as a wheelchair baseball game and a baseball game played by disabled children.

Series XXII: Strikes. Strikes and strike planning. Highlights include Teachers Guild strike images from the 1940s and 1950s, and images the of earliest strike actions by the UFT. Venues such as St. Nicholas Arena, Manhattan Center (both favorite locations for labor union mass meetings), and the Marc Ballroom, as well as various hotels, form the backdrop for these activities.

Series XXIII: Training, Certification, and Workshops. Professional and administrative development programs including narcotics clinics and language workshops.

Series XXIV: Miscellaneous.Events that cannot be precisely categorized based on the photographer's original caption and/or the information in the images themselves. Series includes teachers and UFT officers exploring new tools and technologies such as Cuisenaire Rods (colored rods of varying lengths used for teaching mathematics), magnetic tape, the talking typewriter and "Dial-a-Drill." Art exhibits not further identified by school or sponsoring organization, clothing drives, a teacher's check reproduction and a city planning map are also included in the series.

Series XXV: Predecessor Union: Teachers' Guild. The Teachers' Guild and its participation strikes, celebrations, charity drives (such as the March of Dimes) and other special events. Images of the "Polio Pioneers," the first children who received the Salk polio vaccine, are particularly striking.

Series XXVI: Other Teachers' Organizations. Images documenting activities of teacher organizations, including Empire State Teachers, the United Federation of College Teachers and the Professional Staff Congress.

Series XXVII: Other Labor Organizations. Non-teacher labor unions and umbrella or action organizations representing labor unions or labor-related issues, including the AFL-CIO, Frontlash, the NYC Central Labor Council, and Painters District Council 9.

Series XXVIII: Other Organizations. A small number of images of or relating to non-labor-related organizations, including politically progressive, professional, charitable, or fraternal groups such as the Brotherhood in Action, the Ethical Culture Society and the National Conference for Community and Justice.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the collection; these items are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years after their creation. Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection, created by the United Federation of Teachers, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; United Federation of Teachers Hans Weissenstein Negatives; PHOTOS.019.001; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please request materials at least two business days prior to your research visit to coordinate access.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection of black and white negatives was shot by commercial photographer Hans Weissenstein (aka Whitestone Studios) for the United Federation of Teachers (and one of its predecessor unions, the Teachers' Guild), between 1949 and 1977. It was donated to the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives by the United Federation of Teachers in 1986. The accession number associated with this collection is 1986.024.

Related Material at the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

United Federation of Teachers Photographs, PHOTOS.019

United Federation of Teachers Oral History Collection, OH.009

United Federation of Teachers Records, WAG.022

Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York Records WAG.009

Collection processed by

Holly Halmo, Stephina Fisher, Erika Gottfried, Kevin Andreano, Devon Bixler, Aliqae Geracci.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:33:41 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English.

Processing Information

Decisions regarding arrangement, description, and physical interventions for this collection prior to 2020 are unknown. In 2020 the file inventory was edited to add main box numbers to simplify paging requests.

Select creator-supplied titles containing racist and ableist language were identified in this collection, but have been retained to convey important contextual information regarding time and place in which the documents and titles were created.

Revisions to this Guide

October 2020: Edited by Megan O'Shea to add main box numbers to the file inventory to simplify paging requests and for compliance with DACS and ACM Required Elements for Archival Description

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from UFT Photos, Part II Negs.doc

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012