Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

Joseph Magliacano Papers and Photographs

Call Number

WAG.223

Dates

circa 1913-1997, inclusive
; 1923-1997, bulk

Creator

Magliacano, Joseph
Maglin, Richard (Role: Donor)
Joan, Landzberg (Role: Donor)

Extent

2.25 Linear Feet in two records cartons, one manuscript box, and one oversized folder.

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

Joseph Magliacano (July 11, 1897-September 1997) was a labor activist in New Jersey and New York City. The collection contains correspondence and poetry, and notebooks, speeches and materials related to the United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA); it also includes photographs related to Joseph Magliacano's labor union activities (particularly the UFWA) as well as some personal and family photographs.

Historical/Biographical Note

Joseph Magliacano (July 11, 1897-September 1997) was a labor activist in New Jersey and New York City. He was born in San Mango Piemonte, Italy, a village near Salerno, to a farming family some of whose members also worked in nearby textile factories. He immigrated to the New York City in 1913, where he became a barber. Not long after his arrival in the United States, he joined the labor movement and got involved in leftwing politics. In 1915 he joined a barbers' union, and in 1917 the Socialist Party; in the 1920s and early 1930s he began to work as a union organizer for textile and shoe workers, as well as organizing a relief organization for striking coal miners in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. He also organized Italian immigrant textile workers in New Jersey and participated with them in the historic Passaic Strike of 1926, and appeared in the semi-fictional, semi-documentary film, The Passaic Textile Strike(1926), as himself.

In 1935 Magliacano was appointed organizer for Local 140 Upholstery International Union (UIU), AFL, and participated in successful drives to organize bedding and springs workers. In December 1937, he was one of the delegates to a conference of breakaway UIU locals that led to the founding of the United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA). In 1939, he was appointed organizer for the Newark, New Jersey-based Local 92 of the UFWA. He then remained with Local 140--serving as an elected officer in various capacities, as well as a business manager--until his retirement in 1968. He also ran for political office on the Communist Party of the United States ticket--in 1933, as a candidate for the New York State Assembly (for Kings County, Brooklyn, 3rd District), in 1936, as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives (for New York City's 13th District), and was active in the Italian American anti-fascist movement.

Arrangement

The files are grouped into two series; folders are arranged alphabetically by topic within Series I, and mostly chronologically within Series II.

Series I: Papers, 1923-1997

Series II: Photographs, circa 1913-1989

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains correspondence and poetry, and notebooks, speeches and materials related to the United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA); it also includes photographs related to Joseph Magliacano's labor union activities (particularly the UFWA) as well as some personal and family photographs.

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 Joseph Magliacano was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Joseph Magliacano Papers and Photographs; WAG 223; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Richard Maglin and Joan Landzberg, children of Joseph Magliacano, in 1998. The accession numbers associated with this gift are 1998.010, 1998.011, and NPA.1998.012.

Related Archival Materials

There is a lengthy oral history interview (tape and transcript) with Joseph Magliacano at the American Labor Museum/Botto House in Haledon, New Jersey, on the subject of the 1926 Passaic textile strike.

The Passaic textile strike [videorecording] / produced by International Workers' Aid. New York, N.Y. : Museum of Modern Art, c[198-?], silent, black and white, 40 minutes running time.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:35:53 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

Photographs from this collection were established as a separate collection, the Joseph Magliacano Photographs (PHOTOS 057). In June 2013, this photographs collection was reincorporated into the Joseph Magliacano Papers, which was then renamed the Joseph Magliacano Papers and Photographs. Among both papers and photographs there was no original order; arrangement was imposed by 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