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Union Label and Service Trades Council of Greater New York and Long Island Lantern Slides

Call Number

PHOTOS.024

Date

circa 1912-1921, inclusive

Creator

Central Union Label Council of New York City
AFL-CIO. New York City Central Labor Council (Role: Donor)

Extent

1 Linear Feet in 3 media boxes

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

In 1911, the Union Label Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) chartered the Central Union Label Council of New York City. The Union Label Council, and later its state counterpart, focused on lobbying, service and publicity for union-labeled goods produced by union members. The collection consists of 218 3"x 4" lantern slides. The majority of these slides are text captions from a lantern slide show created by the Central Labor Union Council to promote the creation and use of union labels, or are images of the union labels themselves. The remainder of the collection is groups of lantern slides –variously text, cartoons, or photographs--on a range of different topics, including photographs of the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile strike of 1912 and other news events of 1912, photographs of ballots, candidates, and campaign literature for some elections held in 1921 in New York City and New York State, World War I-era political cartoons from newspapers, and text of jokes and humorous sayings.

Historical/Biographical Note

In 1911, the Union Label Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) chartered the Central Union Label Council of New York City. Like its parent body, which had been established by Samuel Gompers in 1909, the New York City Union Label Council was dedicated to "a more systematic and thorough agitation and demand for union-made and particularly union label products, and for the patronage of union organizations issuing them." The Union Label Council, and later its state counterpart, focused on lobbying, service and publicity, all in the interest of union-labeled goods produced by members of craft unions. In 1935, the Union Label Trades and Services Department of the AFL chartered a Union Label Trades and Services Department for the state of New York. The state organization called conventions annually and published the Union Label News. In 1959, the New York Council expanded its jurisdiction to Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Arrangement

Arranged in one series numerically by (archivist-assigned) sleeve numbers.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of 218 3 "x 4" lantern slides. The majority are text captions from a lantern slide lecture created by the Central Labor Union Council to promote the creation and use of union labels (slide numbers 151 through 182) and images of the labels themselves--created by labor unions to identify goods and services produced or performed by the unions—or images that incorporate the labels that exhort viewers to purchase products with the labels (slide numbers 40 through 130a, and slides 10 through 22 and 25 through 38, which include duplicates). Both images of the labels of images incorporating the labels have been designated: "Union label" in this collection; they represent dozens of unions (many now defunct). The slide lecture and union label groups are mostly are black and white, although some tinted and colored slides also are present, and both date from ca. 1918-1921. They may also have originally been integrated into one slide show.

The remainder of the collection includes groups of lantern slides of text, cartoons, and photographs on various topics, including following: photographs of the famous Lawrence, Massachusetts textile strike of 1912 that was led by the Industrial Workers of the World (slides 131 through 144); photographs of other news events of 1912 distributed by the commercial wire service company American Press Association (slides 145 through 150); reproductions of World War I-era political cartoons mainly from the New York Tribune newspaper (slides 1 through 4); a series of topical printed jokes titled "Fletcher's Weekly Screen Jazz" (most in this particular group relate to women) that were projected on screens as part of vaudeville shows, ca. World War I-era (slides 109 through 213); text of "comical sayings" from the New York Evening World newspaper ca. World War I (slides 214 through 218); a mix of photographs (some appear to be hand-colored) of ballots, candidates, and campaign literature for some of the New York City and New York State elections of 1921 (slides 183 through 193); and miscellaneous text captions from another (unidentified) lantern slide show, a photograph titled, "Bakery in a Living Room, Early 20th Century" (slides 5 through 9); a comic cartoon showing honeymooners at Niagra Falls, a cartoon about World War I (slide number 39) and another comical saying (slides 23 and 24).

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection, created by New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Union Label and Service Trades Council of Greater New York and Long Island Lantern Slides; PHOTOS 024; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials in this collection were donated by the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 1950.182 and NPA.1989.005.

Collection processed by

Erika Gottfried

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:36:58 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

Original order is unknown; captions are archivist-assigned.

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