Scope and Content Note

The Sam Reiss Photographs Collection - Part II: Photographic Prints is comprised of approximately 8,400 overwhelmingly black and white 8"x 10" photographic prints from ca. the 1930s to 1975, although the bulk were shot between the 1950s and 1970s. Most of these images document the activities and leadership of many of the major labor unions in New York City and the metropolitan area during this period, including those representing workers in the garment, retail, communications, transportation and entertainment industries, and teachers. Many of these images are portraits and group photographs. A small but rich selection of images shows people engaged in various kinds of work, and the collection also includes small numbers of images of sports and recreation, school children, building construction, apartment housing, voter registration drives, and picnics.

Series I. Unions, 1950-1975. Reiss documented many of the major labor unions active in New York City and the metropolitan area. These included unions from the garment industry (Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Textile Workers of America), retail and distributive industries (Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Workers Union, and Retail Clerks International Association); the entertainment industry (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, American Federation of Musicians and the Associated Actors and Artists of America); communication and transportation industries (the Transport Workers Union, Communication Workers of America, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters); electrical and construction-related trades such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 3; International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council #9, and International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers; education workers including the United Federation of Teachers (a highlight of this collection are photos of the official merger between the UFT and the National Education Association in 1972), Professional Staff Congress, and the Catholic Teachers of America. Reiss photographed the leadership and membership of unions in a variety of activities and locations such as conventions, dinners, retreats (e.g. IBEW gatherings at Bayberry Land on Long Island), dedication ceremonies for labor union facilities, professional development, and retirement.

Series II. Labor Organizations, 1951-1975. Reiss' clients included federated and "umbrella" labor union and labor-related organizations such as the AFL-CIO, the New York City Labor Council (and its affiliated ethnic committees such as the Hispanic Labor Committee, the Black Trade Unionists Committee, and the United Italian American Labor Committee), the Union Label and Trades Council, the Jewish Labor Committee, and the League for Industrial Democracy. Of particular note in this series are images documenting the historic merger of the CIO and AFL in New York City in 1955.

Series III. Demonstrations/Rallies/Parades, 1957-1975. This series documents a variety of political actions and events by organized labor and progressive organizations, including strike picket lines, strike support demonstrations, and rallies supporting mainstream political candidates. Of particular note are the photographs at the funeral procession(s) for Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis and Atlanta in 1968; the actions and participants during the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America's strike against the Farah Clothing Company (1973-74); as well as photographs of the crippling New York City transit strike of 1966, the Taxi Drivers Local 3036 strike in 1965, and a bitter strike by white collar workers against the Metropolitan Life Company in 1968. Also documented are public actions spanning a broader spectrum of political issues, ranging from protests on behalf of Soviet Jewry, to a march supporting the war in Vietnam, led by Peter Brennan and other leaders and members of New York City's Building Construction and Trades Council, to an early protest against atomic weapons. A "Demonstrations – Miscellaneous" folder contains images of various demonstrations that include some identifying information; a "Demonstrations – Unidentified" folder contains various images of demonstrations that do not have accompanying caption information.

Series IV. Portraits and Personalities, 1930s-1975. Reiss began his career as a portrait photographer. This series contains a small number of these early, non-union portraits such as a set of photographs of Jack Solomon, a health food advocate and restaurateur in New York City and an image of Fred Allen, the radio personality. But the bulk of these images are of union leaders and members such as Harry Van Arsdale, Jr., William Bowe, Peter Brennan, A. Philip Randolph, Dr. Annie Martin, Bessie Hillman, Jacob Potofsky, Matthew Guinan, Walter Reuther, George Meany, Lane Kirkland, Cesar Chavez, Harry Avrutin, Frederick O'Neal, and Roosevelt Watts. Other groups represented are: politicians (often associated or shown with labor leaders), including New York State Governors Hugh Carey, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and Malcolm Wilson, New York State Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy; entertainers and artists including Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Ruby Dee, Leopold Stokowski, and photographer Roman Vishniac; social and political activists including Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Young, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Nader, and Dorothy I. Height; journalists and writers Victor Riesel and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and international leaders including Abba Eban, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and U Thant.

Series V. Labor Education, 1960s-1975. Images in this series document two organizations providing ongoing professional development for labor union members and leadership: the Center for Labor Studies at Empire State College (now called the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies in Manhattan) and Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Extension Division in Manhattan. Included are photographs of the dedication ceremony for the Center in 1971, certificate award ceremonies and classroom scenes.

Series VI. Other Clients, 1960s-1975. While Reiss spent most of his time photographing events related to organized labor, he also photographed other organizations (some, but not all of which included an organized labor presence), including the City of Hope, Labor Theater, Inc., Consumer Assembly of New York, Boys Club, Boy Scouts, Boys Town, European Jewish Congress, Allied Education Foundation, American Arbitration Association, United Housing Foundation.

Series VII. Worksites, 1950s-1970s. People working at various locations and in different industries, ranging from large and crowded work spaces of garment shops to a small stringed instrument workshop, are included in this series. Of particular interest is a set of photographs of workers at New York City's Museum of Natural History cleaning a dinosaur skeleton and a small number of images of Chinese immigrant workers' children in a garment-manufacturing shop with their parents.

Series VIII. Miscellaneous Topics, 1950s-1975. This series represents a combination of the work Reiss did for various labor organizations as well as his own personal interests. The images cover a wide spectrum of topics ranging from sports and recreation, school children at various levels, architectural photography, including buildings under construction (such the United Nations headquarters and the World Trade Center), cooperative housing and crumbling tenements, swearing-in ceremonies, formal portraits of children from his early years as a photographer, voter registration drives, picnics and a boat trip around Manhattan, to unidentified union and labor meetings, musical performers in a sound studio, commencement ceremonies for nurses, and people looking at art in galleries and museums.

Series IX. Oversized, 1950s-1970s. These large-format prints include portraits of leaders of locals of the Communications Workers of America, the Golden Jubilee dinner Local 54 of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, the 12th constitutional convention of the Transport Workers Union of America, a group photograph of the leadership of Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and President Lyndon Johnson addressing a convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union in the 1960s.