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Harry Lopatin Papers

Call Number

TAM.274

Dates

1904-1990, inclusive
; 1930-1959, bulk

Creator

Lopatin, Harry

Extent

2.25 Linear Feet in 3 manuscript boxes, one oversized box, and one oversized folder.

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

Harry Lopatin (1911-1999) was a socialist, a journalist who wrote for and edited Socialist Party and labor union publications, a news photographer, and labor union staffer. Collection consists of biographical matter, business correspondence, documents from organizations for which Lopatin served as an officer or was employed by, leaflets, clippings, photographs, artifacts and ephemera, spanning the years between 1904 to 1990, but with most materials falling in the decades of the 1930s through the 1950s.

Historical/Biographical Note

Harry Lopatin (1911-1999) was a socialist, a journalist who wrote for and edited Socialist Party and labor union publications, a news photographer, and labor union staffer.

Lopatin was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, to immigrant parents. According to his widow, Adele Slotnick Lopatin, Lopatin was "born to activism," as his mother was a former worker at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (she stopped work at the factory several months prior to the tragic fire), and his is father took part in revolutionary activities while still in Russia, in 1905. Lopatin himself joined the Socialist Party as a teenager and in the 1930s he ran for office--the New York City Board of Aldermen, and for the New York State Senate, respectively--on the Socialist Party ticket in Brooklyn, New York--and served as president of the Brownsville Labor Lyceum, an influential left-wing cultural and political institution in Brooklyn.

An active photo journalist who closely followed the technical evolution of the field, and had a large collection of cameras, Lopatin worked as a photographer for the Jewish Daily Forverts (aka Jewish Daily Forward) from 4/27/1930 until 12/5/45. During the same period he also worked for the newspaper in several other capacities, including Assistant Labor Editor, Assistant Photo and Rotogravure Editor, reporter, and Acting Secretary of the Editorial Department. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he served as managing editor for the Workmen's Circle Call, and in the early 1950s he briefly published his own newspaper, The Community Courier, in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1956 he joined the staff of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in its Northeast Department, working as an administrative assistant responsible for organization, education, public relations, and contract control; from 1961 to 1974, he served the ILGWU's Cloak Out of Town Department and Cloak Joint Board in a similar capacity. In 1965 he ran for City Council (for Brooklyn's 15th District) on the Liberal Party ticket; in 1967 he was elected president of the board of the Rochdale Consumers Cooperative, in Queens, New York. He also served on the on the board of the liberal left anti-communist organization, the League for Industrial Democracy.

Arrangement

The files are grouped into three series; folders are arranged alphabetically by topic within each series.

Series I: Papers,

Series II: Photographs,

Series III. Artifacts and Ephemera

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of biographical matter, business correspondence, documents from organizations for which Lopatin served as an officer or was employed by, leaflets, clippings, photographs, artifacts and ephemera, spanning the years between 1904 to 1990, but with most materials falling in the decades of the 1930s through the 1950s.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive has no information about copyright ownership for this collection and is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from it. Materials in this collection, which were created in 1904 and circa 1920-1990, are expected to enter the public domain in 2110.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Harry Lopatin Papers; TAM 274; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials found in collection; provenance is unknown. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 1950.080, 1950.228, NPA.1999.020, NPA.1999.034, and NPA.2000.196.

Collection processed by

Erika Gottfried, April 2013.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:27:29 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English.

Processing Information

Photographs from this collection were established as a separate collection, Harry Lopatin Photographs (PHOTOS 090). In April 2013 this photographs collection was reincorporated into the Harry Lopatin Papers.

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