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Daniel Nilva Photographs

Call Number

PHOTOS.067.001

Dates

circa 1930s - 1950s, inclusive
; 1933-1938, bulk

Creator

Nilva, Daniel
Nilva, Daniel
Nilva, Sheila Cole (Role: Donor)

Extent

0.5 Linear Feet in one manuscript box

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

Daniel Nilva was a photographer who shot for labor unions and progressive organizations, first as a staff photographer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and then as a freelancer. The collection includes prints of images he shot from the 1930s through the early 1950s, that document, as well reflect Nilva's participation in, activities of the Communist Party (Opposition) ("CPO") (a splinter group of the Communist Party), as well as May Day parades in 1930s New York City; labor union meetings, and a New York City longshoremen's wildcat strike; rallies by left-liberal organizations such as the American Labor Party and American Friends of Spanish Democracy; and a record of the work performed by and living conditions of merchant marines on a freighter in the early 1950s. Individuals pictured include CPO leaders Jay Lovestone and Charles Zimmerman, and CIO President John L. Lewis.

Historical/Biographical Note

Daniel Nilva was born in New York City on March 7, 1914, the only child of Joseph Nilva and Eva Bloom, Russian Jewish immigrants. Joseph Nilva worked as a painter in a shipyard, and gilding and painting moldings of buildings--and as a pushcart peddler. Eva Nilva worked as a fan dancer on the popular stage; she taught Nilva to dance and he performed on stage with her as a child. Nilva's parents were divorced by the time he was in his teens, and may have separated earlier. In any case, it appears that between the ages of six and thirteen he was moved around considerably, living with each of his parents in turn, and then sent to board with and attend school with friends in the Midwest, in Omaha and Chicago, and finally to a farm in Roscoe, New York, where he lived until he completed high school. Nilva became close to the farm family and a lifelong friend of Leon Becker (later a criminal court judge), who also boarded at the farm. It was here that Nilva acquired his first camera, a Brownie box camera.

The 1930s were a formative time in Nilva's life personally, politically, and professionally. He returned to New York City, where he attended Cooper Union, studying engineering for four years, although he did not graduate. He married Alice Mildred ("Millie") Elkes and became friends with three men to whom he remained close the rest of his life--Bernard Seaman, a labor cartoonist, Morris Stone, later an official with the American Arbitration Association, and Dr. Valentine Gregory Burtan, a heart specialist who had been imprisoned on a counterfeiting charge. Nilva also joined the Communist Party Opposition (a splinter group of the Communist Party, led by Jay Lovestone and also known as the Independent Communist Labor League and Independent Labor League of America), and in early 1933 he went to work as a photographer for the Education Department of Local 22, Dressmakers, of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). Millie Nilva appears also to have been associated with Local 22 and may have worked there. Nilva documented functions and activities of the Local with his camera and photographed for the ILGWU newspaper, Justice. He did freelance work for the Bookkeepers Stenographers and Accountants Union's newspaper, The Ledger, as well. His primary cameras were a Leica Model G and a 4x5 Speed Graphic.

In 1937, Nilva's employment with Local 22 came to an end. The following year he sat for and passed New York City's civil service examination for photographers. At the recommendation of Jay Lovestone, he applied directly for a job with the president of the Civil Service Commission, but evidently was not successful. Nilva was rejected for military service in World War II because of his extremely poor eyesight. During the war, he worked in New Orleans at an aircraft factory. After that he had considerable difficulty finding work before landing a full-time job at the New York Public Library in an unknown capacity. By the 1950s, however, Nilva was working full-time as a freelance photographer in New York City, and maintained a studio at at least one address (Broadway and 27th Street). His clients included a variety of labor unions and progressive organizations. Nilva's marriage to Millie Nilva did not last long. The couple had no children and were separated for nearly twenty years before divorcing.

In September 1951, Nilva and his friend, Bernard Seaman, signed on to work as merchant seamen, on the MS Hurricane, which sailed from Rotterdam on the fifth of that month, and arrived in New York on the 16th—Seaman as a deckhand, and Nilva in an unknown capacity. It was the first time, and probably the last, that either of them had worked on a ship. Nilva used his camera to document the work and living conditions of their fellow workers.

In 1964 Nilva married again, this time to Sheila Cole, a writer; they had two daughters. Their first few years together were a financial struggle, in part because of medical bills occasioned by a heart attack suffered by Nilva and because the ill-health caused by the heart attack forced him to cut back on his photography. By the mid-1960s, however, Sheila Nilva had opened an antique shop, managed by both of them, that featured cameras and photographica. The shop eventually became successful enough to support the family, and the Nilvas -- partly underwritten by Sheila Nilva's freelance assignments as a travel writer -- were also able to travel extensively in North Africa and Europe, as well as throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Nilva died September 15, 1984, of a heart attack, at the age of seventy.

Arrangement

The files are grouped into six subject series as follows:

Series 1 - Demonstrations and Parades, 1934-1937, circa 1930s; Series 2 - Rallies and Public Meetings, 1936-1938, circa 1930s; Series 3 - Political Parties and Political Organizations, 1933-1938, circa 1930s; Series 4 - Labor Unions and Labor Organizations, 1945-1951, circa 1930s; Series 5 - Worksite, 1951; Series 6 - Personal, circa 1910s-1950s

Folders are arranged alphabetically within each series.

Scope and Content Note

The collection is comprised of black and white prints shot by Daniel Nilva. They document (and reflect Nilva's participation in) some of the activities of the Communist Party (Opposition) ("CPO") during the 1930s, as well as his freelance work for labor unions. Individuals pictured include Jay Lovestone, Charles "Sasha" Zimmerman, and other CPO leadership, as well as CIO President John L. Lewis, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, New York Republican Party politician, Thomas E. Dewey, garment union presidents David Dubinsky and Sidney Hillman, Nilva's first wife, Millie, and his close friend, labor and political cartoonist Bernard Seaman. Of particular interest are images of May Day parades in New York City in the 1930s, CPO meetings held in at its New Workers School in New York City, with murals painted for the CPO by Diego Rivera visible in the background, as well as CPO members in informal settings such as picnics and outings, the 1951 New York City longshoremen's wildcat strike, conflict between the two major merchant marine unions, the Seafarers International Union and the National Maritime Union, and a record of the work performed by and living conditions of merchant marines on a freighter in the early 1950s. Matching or additional negatives of the prints in this collection may occasionally be found in shoot PHOTOS 067 - Part I - Daniel Nilva Photographs - Part 1 - Negatives Collection.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Daniel Nilva were transferred to New York University in 1994 and 1997 by Sheila Cole Nilva. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Daniel Nilva Photographs - Part II: Photographic Prints; PHOTOS 067.1; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Photographic prints were purchased by the Tamiment Library, NYU from Sheila Cole Nilva on November 30, 1994. The accession number associated with this gift is 1994.030. Additional photographs were donated by her in 1997. The accession number associated with this gift is NPA.1997.023.

Related Archival Materials

Daniel Nilva Papers (TAM 272)

Daniel Nilva Photographs - Part I: Negatives (PHOTOS 067)

Daniel Nilva, Photographer--Garment industry photographs. (Collection# P-5969, UNITE Archives, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation, Cornell University)

Bibliographical Note

Information for this guide was drawn from the Guide to the Daniel Nilva Photographs - Part I - Negatives - PHOTOS.067, Tamiment Library. http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/photos_067/photos_067.html).

Collection processed by

Erika Gottfried

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:38:16 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

This collection came as part of a group of prints and negatives donated by Sheila Nilva, Daniel Nilva's widow. The negatives were separated and added to an earlier collection of negatives purchased from Mrs. Nilva in 1994, which was processed and has its own finding aid. The prints were moved into archival housing, and arranged into subject series by the archivist.

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