Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137 Records
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Abstract
Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137 is the Greater New York, Long Island, Westchester and Rockland local union of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers. Most of its members' work is fabricating, rigging, and installing metal signboards. This has included production of many of the electric signs on Broadway's "Great White Way," the time ball used at New Year's Eve celebrations at Times Square, as well as signs for suburban shopping centers. Its charter was issued in 1924, but the Local was founded earlier, possibly as early as 1911. The collection includes correspondence, executive board minutes, apprenticeship records, contracts, and a small number of photographs, mainly from the 1970s and 1980s. This collection also includes an archived version of Local 137's website, http://www.local137.com. An early version of the website was first captured in September 2007, although regular web crawls began in June 2019 of their new web address, http://www.smart137.com.
Historical Note
Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137 is the Greater New York, Long Island, Westchester and Rockland local union of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers. Its charter was issued in 1924, as part of what was then the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers' International Alliance, but the Local was founded earlier, possibly as early as 1911. Local 137 originally organized workers doing custom automobile body work, but most of its members soon shifted to the skilled work of fabricating and erecting metal signboards (although portion also have worked in production shops making stove tops, electric metal components, and lockers). In collaboration with members of New York City area electricians' and painters' union locals, Local 137 employees fabricated many of the electric and neon signs on Broadway' "Great White Way," and as well as (as employees of ArtKraft Strauss, one of the premiere sign-making companies in the United States) the time ball that has descended each year at the New Year's Eve celebration on Times Square). Local 137 members have also produced signs, billboards, and banners for well-known New York City locations such as Yankee Stadium and Kennedy Airport, and worked on the restoration of several New York City landmarks, including the Apollo Theater and Nathan's Famous Hotdogs. Members have also worked in the New York City metropolitan area, as far afield as New Jersey. The collapse in 1970 of the Broadway Central Hotel, in which the Local's offices were located, destroyed some of its earliest records. The Local purchased its own building in Woodside, Queens, in 1983.
Local 137 members are required to complete a five-year apprenticeship training program that offered by the Local.
Presidents of the Local have included Moe Rosen, Bernard Friedlander, Martin Fruchter, William Fotiadis, and Paul Collins, Jr.
Arrangement
Contents of collection has been arranged by archivist in boxes by topic.
Scope and Contents
The records include correspondence, executive board minutes, apprenticeship records, contracts, and a small number of photographs, mainly from the 1970s and 1980s. Local 137's websites, http://www.local137.com and http://www.smart137.com, contain event listings, a blog, images from events, and information on their apprenticeship program. An early version of the website was first captured in September 2007, and regular web crawls began in June 2019.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137 Records; WAG 180; box number, folder number, or electronic record identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137, in February 2000. The accession numbers associated with this gift are 2000.014 and 2000.015.
http://www.local137.com was initially selected by curators and captured through the use of The California Digital Library's Web Archiving Service in 2007 as part of the Labor Unions and Organizations Web Archive. In 2014, the archived website was added to the collection finding aid. When preparing the collection for offsite storage in 2019, it was found that there was only one 2007 capture of the archived website. In 2015, the website was selected to be migrated to Archive-It but the majority of the crawls were lost during the migration process. In 2019, crawls were resumed using the local's current URL, http://www.smart137.com/. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. The accession number associated with this website is 2019.141.
Take Down Policy
Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.
If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.
If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.
Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.
Bibliographical Note
Information for this guide was drawn from "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives--Labor History in New York City," by Janet Wells Greene, from the March 2000 issue of Annotation (newsletter of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission); "The Sign Industry of New York City," senior thesis by Bernard Friedlander, Empire State Labor College, New York, undated; "Sheet Metal Workers Local 137--A Century of Sign Making," Louis M. Brill, SignWeb (online companion to Signs of the Times), posted June 7, 2010; The Sheet Metal Workers' Story: A Chronicle of Fine Craftsmanship 1888 - 1980, Arch A. Mercey, Merkle Press, Glen Dale, Maryland, 1980; "Sheet Metal Workers' International Association Local # 137," Claudia Hommel, New York City Labor Records Survey (LRS#292), 1985.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Photographs from this collection were separated from the records and established as a separate collection: the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137 Photographs (PHOTOS 184). In December 2013, this photograph collection was reincorporated into the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 137 Records.
In 2014, the archived website was added to the finding aid.
In June 2019, the collection was prepared for offsite storage. Materials were placed in new acid-free boxes with spacers. Original folders were retained when possible. Where appropriate, materials were rehoused in new acid-free folders. If present, original folder titles were used. Loose paper materials were placed in archival folders. The web address of Local 137's new website was also added to the finding aid.
