Guide to the Alexander Cohen Tamiment Playhouse Photographs PHOTOS 080

Most of the 25 images in this collection are photographs of performances at the Tamiment Playhouse; all were shot by Alexander Cohen. The Playhouse, located in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, was a prominent incubator of and a major creative outlet for theater, dance, film, and television in the mid-twentieth century. It nurtured many performers and writers who later became famous, such as Danny Kaye, Carol Burnett, Woody Allen, and Neil Simon. Much of the copious original material performed at Tamiment found its way to the professional stage, Broadway, and television. The Playhouse was part of Camp Tamiment, a summer resort for socialists and their families that opened in 1921.

Guide to the Alexander Berkman Papers TAM 067

Alexander Berkman was an anarchist and author, and companion of anarchist Emma Goldman. The collection contains legal documents, speeches and transcripts, most pertaining to Berkman and Goldman’s trial for opposing conscription during World War I.

Guide to the Morris Hillquit Papers TAM 027

Morris Hillquit (1896-1933) was a socialist candidate, leader, lawyer, author and prominent theoretician of the Socialist Pary. The papers contain correspondence, including letters by James Oneal, August Claessens and Julius Gerber; manuscripts; campaign literature; printed ephemera; clippings, photographs and other papers, including the text of a debate with Bertrand Russell, and the typescript of "Builders of World Socialism," (1962) an unpublished book by Hillquit's daughter, Nina.

Guide to the Janet Pinkard Collection TAM 300

Janet "Ginger" Pinkard was involved in radical activities, mostly in New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. While attending demonstrations, concerts and films, she collected programs, songsheets and songbooks relating specifically to those events and to radical politics in general. The collection consists of musical and theatrical material. Sheet music, song-sheets and songbooks from a variety of organizations including People's Songs, the Jefferson School of Social Science, Camp Unity and the Worker's Bookshop are included. Also present are programs from the Federal Theatre Project, the American Student Union and other film and theatrical events.

Guide to the Socialist Aldermen Papers TAM 056.7 (R-7124)

From 1917 to 1920, seven prominent socialists were elected on the Socialist Party ticket to serve on the New York City Board of Aldermen. The collection contains correspondence and subject files. Note: this collection has been microfilmed, and researchers must use the microfilm copy (R-7124, reel 11).

Guide to the Emma Goldman Papers TAM 012

Emma Goldman was an anarchist, feminist, writer, publisher of Mother Earth, companion of Alexander Berkman, author of Anarchism and Other Essays, Living My Life, and My Disillusionment in Russia, and was deported from the U.S. in 1919. The collection contains correspondence, speeches, published and unpublished writings, and a typescript of an unpublished biography, Emma Goldman Speaks, by Jeanne Levey.

Guide to the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Complaints of Discrimination during World War II ALBA 069

During World War II nearly 500 Abraham Lincoln Brigade veterans enlisted in the U.S. armed forces. Many served with distinction, were decorated and were cited for heroism. Some found, however, that their time in Spain battling Franco’s insurgent forces seemed to compromise their status in the U.S. military. This collection consists of World War II letters from more than 70 volunteers to the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade headquarters in New York City, some of them documenting discrimination against Lincoln Brigade veterans by the U.S. military. Also included are files of letters from Jack Bjoze, the Executive Secretary of VALB, to U.S. military officials, government officials, and newspaper columnists seeking to expose and end an apparent policy that prohibited some veterans from promotion or from participating in active service; and files documenting cases that VALB regarded as the main instances of discrimination.

Guide to the Isadore Wisotsky Autobiographical Typescript TAM 071

Isidore Wisotsky (1895-1970) was born circa 1895 and immigrated from Latvia to the U.S. with his family when he was fourteen. He worked in the garment industry, became an anarchist, was involved with the Industrial Workers of the World, and became a friend of Norman Thomas. The collection contains a typescript of Isidor Wisotsky's autobiography, "Such a Life," in which he recounts his experiences as a Russian Jewish immigrant working in New York City's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century, his anarchist and Industrial Workers of the World activities, and his personal recollections of radical leaders. An introduction by Norman Thomas is included.

Guide to the Women Writing Women's Lives Records 1989-2004 Tamiment #316

Founded in 1990, Women Writing Women’s Lives is an ongoing seminar of about sixty women engaged in writing book-length biographies and memoirs, affiliated with the Center for the Study of Women and Society and the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Members meet monthly to present work for discussion, share ideas, and hear about the work of outside presenters. The collection consists of administrative files, subject files, and notes and lectures from the group’s monthly meetings.

Guide to the African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: Christopher Brooks Research Files ALBA 027

Christopher Brooks was a graduate student at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, who in 1993 began research on a thesis project chronicling African Americans who fought on the side of the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. As part of that research, he sent out survey forms, along with a request for any additional information, to other surviving volunteers of that struggle who had fought in either American, British or Canadian brigades. He hoped that their memories of specific African-American fighters, including their military and political histories and any other personal details, would add greater depth to the portraits already published in the volume, edited by Danny Duncan Collum and researched by Victor Berch, entitled African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: “This Ain’t Ethiopia but It’ll Do” (G.K. Hall and Co., 1992). This collection consists of descriptive material on the project and responses from the veterans (and spouses) who replied.

Guide to the Civil Service Technical Guild Photograph Collection PHOTOS 012

The Civil Service Technical Guild, established in 1937 to represent engineers and architects employed by the City of New York; was founded by three engineers: Henry F. Cunningham, William F. Elliot, and George Ellenoff. In 1956 it merged with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District 37, as that organization’s Local 375. By the 1960s the Guild had won the right of collective bargaining and over the years won for its members improved salaries, medical and dental benefits, Social Security and long-term disability insurance. Spanning the years 1922 to 1980, the collection of ca. 400 black and white photographs represents every aspect of the Guild's existence and activities. Most are of routine gatherings such as banquets and meetings, and these include portraits and posed group photographs with Guild presidents Louis Albano, Philip Brueck, Joseph Collins, Richard Izzo, and Alexander Lurkis,, but a few are less formal and provide more information on the material culture and the social lives of the early union members. In addition, some photographs document subway construction at several different time periods and different locations. Some of the photographers/photographic studios whose work is included in this collection are: John Adams Davis; Drunker, Hilbert Co.; Roland Harvey; Photographic Unit of the New York City Transit Authority; Sam Reiss; A.G. Schoenfeld; Ed Sheenan; Vincent Stibler; and Whitestone Photos.

Guide to the Pacific Street Films Photographs PHOTOS 046

Pacific Street Films produced several films on anarchism, including Free Voice of Labor--The Jewish Anarchists (1980), and Anarchism in America (1982). The collection contains images collected by PSF in the course of making these films, including photographs of Rose Pesotta, Mollie Steimer, Rudolph Rocker and other anarchists, and of anarchist gatherings, including picnics hosted by the newspaper the Frei Arbiter Stimme, the Free Society Group of Chicago, the Mohegan Colony at Crompond, New York, and of students at the residential labor union training school, Commonwealth College in Mena, Arkansas.

Guide to the Robert Reed Northwest Volunteers Research Project Records ALBA 082

Robert Reed was a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, who lived for many years in the Seattle area. In the late 1970s, with the help of fellow veteran Oiva Halonen, he undertook a research project to document the lives of Lincoln Brigade volunteers who came from or were associated with the Pacific Northwest. The collection consists of background files on the project and files of clippings, reminiscences and other biographical material on 54 individual veterans.

Guide to the Women Writing Women's Lives Records TAM 316

Founded in 1990, Women Writing Women’s Lives is an ongoing seminar of about sixty women engaged in writing book-length biographies and memoirs, affiliated with the Center for the Study of Women and Society and the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Members meet monthly to present work for discussion, share ideas, and hear about the work of outside presenters. The collection consists of administrative files, subject files, and notes and lectures from the group’s monthly meetings.

Guide to the Sam Wallach Papers TAM 241

Sam Wallach (1909-2001) was a school teacher and President of the Teachers' Union, 1945-1948. He was fired by the New York City Board of Education in 1951 for refusal to cooperate with various bodies investigating Communism. The collection includes correspondence; clippings; materials relating to his suspension, dismissal and subsequent reinstatement; his FBI surveillance file and items from his second career working with the mentally retarded. Rose Russell (1899-1965), another teacher who became a leader in the Teachers' Union, is also represented in the collection.

Guide to the Alex Bittelman’s "Things I Have Learned" TAM 062

Alex Bittelman was a Communist activist and theoretician who was one of the founders of the Jewish Communist movement in the United States. The collection consists of an autobiographical typescript.

Guide to the Committees of Correspondence (U.S) Records TAM 220

The Committees on Correspondence was organized in 1992 after the 1991 CPUSA convention as a non-Leninist, democratic socialist organization to dispute the policies and leadership of CPUSA head, Gus Hall. The movement centered around the respected veteran communist and former leading CP official, Gil Green (1906-1997). The CoC sought to reach out to others on the left outside the Party, and held conferences in 1992 and 1994 to formally establish the new organization. Around 2000, the CoC's name was changed to the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. The collection includes: letters, memos, statements, minutes and emails that document formation of the organization and national leadership meeting minutes.

The Guide to the Good Fight: the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War: Production Materials ALBA 216

The Good Fight, a feature-length documentary film released in 1983, pays homage to American volunteers who served with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The film makes extensive use of archival footage from the war, stills, primary documents, radio broadcasts, newsreels, and interviews. The collection includes research and administrative material created during the production of the project and transcribed interviews with 23 veterans.

Guide to the Adolph Ross Papers ALBA 137

Adolph Ross was a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, serving with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He returned to New York severely wounded and went on to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. In later life he devoted himself to compiling biographical information on U.S. volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Several versions of his annotated list were privately published and distributed by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives in the 1980s and 1990s. The collection includes multiple annotated drafts of the list, Ross’s files on and correspondence with a number of individual veterans and their family and friends, and some documents and memorabilia belonging to Ross himself.

Guide to the John Lowenthal Papers TAM 190

John Lowenthal (1925-2003) was an attorney and filmmaker. While in law school Lowenthal had a brief stint as a volunteer assistant to the defense during Alger Hiss's two perjury trials in 1949 and 1950. In the 1970s, after the release of suppressed FBI documents about the case, Lowenthal, by then a Rutgers University law professor, published an analysis of what this new evidence revealed. Several years later, Lowenthal took a leave from Rutgers to make "The Trials of Alger Hiss," a feature-length documentary film about the case. The John Lowenthal Papers consists primarily of materials gathered for Lowenthal's film, "The Trials of Alger Hiss" (Los Angeles, California: Direct Cinema, Ltd., 1981). The collection includes research files and transcripts of the interviews conducted for the film, correspondence, court records, and rough drafts and typescripts of articles and commentary written by Lowenthal.

Guide to the ALBA Vertical Files: Individuals ALBA VF 2

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) Vertical Files are a rich source for background information on the people, events and topics related to the ALBA collections in the Tamiment Library and include coverage of the International Brigades as well. The files contain a variety of documents such as newspaper clippings, flyers, brochures, biographical material, anniversary and exhibit programs, obituaries, and other items. Consult the folder list in this collection to find material on specific individuals. See the ALBA Vertical File on Subjects to find material related to topics and events.

Guide to the Mitch Miller: Anarchist, Libertarian and Related Subject Files TAM 453

Mitch Miller is a founding member of the Libertarian Workers Group, the Anarchist-Communist Federation of North America, and the Workers Solidarity Alliance. He is active in the Libertarian Book Club, among other libertarian and anarchist groups, and writes for numerous anarchist publications, sometimes under the pen name Mike Harris. The collection consists largely of flyers from anarchist and libertarian groups in the New York metropolitan area. It also includes material produced by foreign anarchist groups, correspondence, newsletters, and clippings.

Guide to the Union Label and Service Trades Council of Greater New York and Long Island Photographs PHOTOS 013

The Central Union Label Council of New York City (later the Union Label and Services Trades Council of Greater New York and Long Island) was founded to promote union-labeled goods and union-made products, through lobbying, service and publicity. Chartered by the Union Label Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor in 1911, in its early years the Council established and ran a department store stocked with union-made products. By the 1950s, promotion took the form of mounting annual labor-management trade shows, "Miss Union Maid" beauty contests, sponsoring a weekly labor press radio program, and other public relations efforts. The collection consists of ca. 3,800 images that span the late 1930s through the early 1980s, with the bulk from 1957-1970. The majority are 8x10 black and white copy prints shot by a variety of commercial photographers. More than half document annual conventions of the New York State Union Label Trades and the conventions’ associated activities. Prints of special historic interest include images of the 1938 Union Label Week parade in New York City; a mass rally at Madison Square Garden opposing the Taft-Hartley Act, and comely young women used to advertise the Council’s agenda.

Guide to the Tamiment Library Vertical Files: Individuals 1890-2009 Tamiment #468

The Tamiment Library, New York University, founded in 1906 as the library of the Rand School of Social Science, is a special collection documenting the history of United States radicalism, labor, and progressive social action. It accumulated this artificial collection of vertical files gradually over the years. The Vertical Files: Individuals collection consists of approximately 3,500 files containing fliers, broadsides, leaflets, clippings, reprints, reports, pamphlets, and other printed ephemera, arranged alphabetically.

Guide to the Labor Research Association Records TAM 129

The Labor Research Association was founded in 1927 by Grace Hutchins, Anna Rochester, and Robert Dunn (LRA's director from 1927-1975) along with Solon DeLeon and Alexander Trachtenberg. Hutchins was the principal writer on wage-earning women for the Communist Party of the United States of America; Rochester, a Marxist historian, economist, and Communist Party member, and Hutchins' lifelong companion. The LRA was politically close to the CPUSA and its purpose was to "conduct investigations and studies of social, economic, and political questions in the interest of the labor movement." The principal activities of the LRA have been research, consulting, and the publication of books, pamphlets, articles, and serials on issues of concern to the labor movement. Among the books produced by the LRA are: Apologists for Monopoly(1955), The History of the Shorter Workday(1942), Monopoly Today(1950), and Trends in American Capitalism(1948). The seventeen volumes of the Labor Fact Book, published between 1931 and 1965, were widely circulated reference books. The collection consists mainly of unpublished manuscripts and reports, research notes and memos, and correspondence. Also included in the collection are personal memorabilia and other materials documenting Dunn's related political activities.

Guide to the Newsmen's Commission to Investigate the Murder of George Polk Records TAM 159

George Polk was a CBS news correspondent covering the Greek civil war who was murdered in Salonika on May 16th, 1948. In the course of his investigations, he had uncovered, and was about to publish, evidence of criminal activity by rightist forces who had the support of the United States and Great Britain. The Newsmen's Commission to Investigate the Murder of George Polk was founded in 1948 at the initiative of the New York Chapter of the Newspaper Guild. Several people associated with the Greek Communist Pary were convicted of involvement in the murder of Polk in a trial and verdict now widely believed to be fraudulent. The collection contains correspondence, clippings, reports, and a transcript of the trial of Gregorios Stahtopoulos and Anna Stahtopoulos, accused of complicity in the murder. There are also photographs of George Polk and some Price family memorabilia. Correspondents include: John Donovan, William Donovan, Ernest Hemingway, Walter Lippman, Herbert Mitgang, Edward Morrow, George Polk, Rhea Polk, William Polk, Constantine Poulos, William Price, Howard Smith, and I.M. Stone.

Guide to the Philip M. Weightman Papers WAG 194

Philip M. Weightman, a native of Vicksburg, MS, began his career as a labor organizer and political activist as a teenager in St. Louis. In 1930 he moved to Chicago, where he became an organizer and representative of packinghouse workers. In 1948 he went to work for the CIO’s Political Action Committee, based in Washington. The collection documents in detail Weightman’s work as national field representative for the CIO Political Action Committee and as a staff member and Assistant Director of AFL-CIO COPE, until 1967. Correspondence, reports, publicity materials and clipping files document his work in labor and civil rights, with particular emphasis on labor’s role in campaigns for voter registration among African-Americans.

Guide to the Jay and Si-lan Chen Leyda Papers TAM 083

Jay Leyda (1910-1988) was a leading film historian, filmmaker, photographer, archivist, translator, teacher, and noted Sergei Eisenstein, Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville scholar. Leyda studied directing with Sergei Eisenstein at the Moscow State Film School, became a correspondent for Theatre Arts Monthly, New Theatreand was an art critic for the Moscow News. In 1936, Leyda was Assistant Curator of Films the Museum of Modern Art, but resigned amidst allegations that he was a subversive agent. Leyda went to Hollywood in 1942 where he was a technical advisor on films on Russian subjects and began work on Herman Melville documents which led to a number of books on the subject. In 1973, Leyda became professor of Cinema Studies at NYU and died in 1988. His wife, Si Lan Chen Leyda (1909- ), was a modern dancer who pioneered the use of Chinese dance elements. Si-Lan Chen was born in Trinidad and attended the Bolshoi Ballet School and Vera Maya's school in Moscow where she met and married Leyda. Throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, she toured and worked in Hollywood as a choreographer, dance instructor and occasionally appeared in films. The collection includes their biographical material, correspondence, writings, and material pertaining to their various pursuits. Correspondents include: James Agee, Walter Benjamin, Paul Bowles, Luis Bunuel, Aaron Copeland, Walker Evans, Langston Hughes, Elia Kazan, Carol King, Fritz Lang, Man Ray, Lee Strasberg, Thornton Wilder, Edmund Wilson, among others.

Guide to the Manny Harriman Video Oral History Collection ALBA VIDEO 048

Manny Harriman (1919-1997) was a veteran of both the Spanish Civil War (he served under his birth name, Samuel Nahman) and World War II who later pursued careers in tool and die making and publishing. Following his first return trip to Spain in 1977, Harriman became interested in the history of his fellow Spanish Civil War veterans. The collection consists of oral history interviews he began videotaping in 1985 with veterans and/or their surviving relatives and friends across the country. The collection also contains a small number of recordings of VALB political activities during the mid-1980s, particularly around aid to Nicaragua. Harriman captured the personal histories of at least 180 veterans. The interviews cover veterans’ family histories, their motivations for joining the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, their experiences fighting in Spain and later in World War II, and their activities in subsequent years.

Guide to the General Photograph Collection PHOTOS 001

The General Photograph Collection is an assemblage of photographs collected by or separated from Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive collections. Photographs depict events and people related to labor and/or leftist movements.

Guide to the New York City Central Labor Council Photograph Collection PHOTOS 020

The Central Trades and Labor Council of the American Federation of Labor merged with the New York City Congress of Industrial Organizations Council on February 19, 1959 to form the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. The Council is an organization comprised of nearly 400 local union affiliates. The collection consists of approximately 8,200 mostly 8x10 black and white glossy prints, spanning the 1940s through the late 1990s, with the bulk dating from the 1970s and 1980s. Major areas covered by the collection include demonstrations by Council affiliates on various issues, and annual Council activities and events, such as the New York City Labor Day Parade. The principal photographers are Sam Reiss, Alexander Archer, Dan Miller, Jules Geller, and Mildred Gross.

Guide to the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union Records WAG 012

Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union was organized at Macy’s in New York City on June 7, 1939 by the Congress of Industrial Organizations’ Department Store Organizing Committee. Headed by Sam Kovenetsky, a stockroom worker who served as Business Manager of Local 1-S from 1939 to 1948 and as President from 1948 to 1980, the union bargained for employee benefits including increased job security, higher minimum wages, and a company-paid health insurance plan. Originally affiliated with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 1-S and other left-wing locals seceded from the RWDSU in 1948 after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act. However, in 1951 Local 1-S re-affiliated with the CIO under a separate charter as an international union, the United Department Store Workers of America and in 1955 the Local re-affiliated with the RWDSU. The records consist of correspondence, minutes, constitutions, notes, speeches, newsletters, agreements, contract negotiations, grievances, annual reports, economic reports, memoranda, circulars and brochures.

Guide to the Printed Ephemera Collection on Individuals PE 030

The Tamiment Library, New York University, founded in 1906 as the library of the Rand School of Social Science, is a special collection documenting the history of United States radicalism, labor, and progressive social action. It accumulated this artificial collection of printed ephemera gradually over the years. The Printed Ephemera Collection on Individuals consists of approximately 2,000 files containing flyers, broadsides, leaflets, clippings, reprints, reports, pamphlets, and other printed ephemera, arranged alphabetically.

Guide to the Charles Allan Madison Papers TAM 133

Charles Allan Madison was a publishing executive and author of several books on labor, liberal and progressive leaders, publishing history and Jewish topics. He was born in Kiev and emigrated to the United States in 1906. He earned an MA in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1922 after which he moved to New York City to begin his long career as an editor. He first worked with the American Book Company from 1922-1924, and then went to Henry Holt and Company where he remained for the next 38 years. The collection includes Madison's manuscripts and correspondence with a number of prominent individuals, including: Howard Fast, Harold L. Ickes, Robert M. LaFollette Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Thomas, Oswald Garrison Villard, among others.

Guide to the William Mailly Papers TAM 010 (R-7124)

William Mailly was a leading American socialist. He served as National Secretary of the Socialist Party (1903-05), and edited several socialist publications, notably the New York Evening Call (1908-09). The collection contains Mailly's journalistic writings, including literary efforts and reviews, correspondence, and other materials. NOTE: the collection has been microfilmed, and researchers must use the microfilm copy (R-7124, reel 66).

Guide to the Tamiment Library: Manuscript Files TAM 245

The Tamiment Library, founded in 1906 as the library of the Rand School of Social Science, is a special collection documenting the history of United States radicalism, labor, and progressive social action. It accumulated this artificial collection of brief manuscript files over the years. The files pertain largely to individuals, and also to organizations, events and topics, and contain correspondence, manuscripts and typescripts, as well as a few items of printed ephemera.

Guide to the Bert Cochran Papers TAM 205

Bert Cochran (1916-1984) was a Trotskyist active in the Communist League of America (1934), the American Workers Party (1935-37), in the Appeal Group within the Socialist Party, and in the automobile industry (1930s-40s), first in Cleveland within the Mechanics Educational Society of America, then in Detroit as head of the Socialist Workers Party Auto Fraction and as an activist within the United Automobile Workers of America. He left/was expelled from the SWP in 1954 for his leading role in the “Cochran-Clarke” faction, then helped found the magazine The American Socialist(1954-1959), and subsequently wrote seven books that covered labor and economics, and current domestic and international affairs. The collection contains correspondence, minutes, and reports relating to his labor and political activities, typescripts of speeches on various topics, and an (incomplete) untitled manuscript, a Marxist history of warfare and society.

Guide to the Barbara Kopple: Peekskill Riots Collection TAM 307

Assembled by filmmaker Barbara Kopple in preparation for two feature-length films, the collection documents two Paul Robeson concerts in August and September of 1949 to benefit the Civil Rights Congress and the anti-Communist/anti-radical riots by civilians that took place in reaction to the concerts (preventing the first one from actually taking place). The collection includes administrative files related to the film projects; scripts; subject files, clippings and correspondence; and a small number of artifacts and ephemera related to the riots.

Guide to the Algernon Lee Papers TAM 014

Algernon Lee (1873-1954), served as the editor of several socialist publications, including The Worker, The Daily Call, and The New Leaderin New York City. He was also the Director of Education at the Rand School of Social Science. From 1909-1954. Lee was one of several Socialist members of the New York City Board of Aldermen temporarily prevented from taking office following his 1919 re-election. Lee also served one term as the national chairman of the Socialist Party following Morris Hillquit's death in 1933. The collection contains correspondence with many leading U.S. and European socialists, published and unpublished writings, radio scripts, emphemera, memorabilia, reading notes, miscellaneous materials and the Civil War letters of Pvt. James Lee.

Guide to the Rose Pastor Stokes Papers TAM 053 (R-7124)

Rose Pastor Stokes (1879-1933), born Rose Wieslander in Russian Poland, was a leading Jewish-American socialist, birth control advocate, and after the Russian revolution, a communist. Stokes helped organize garment workers in New York City, wrote for the Jewish Daily News, The Massesand other left periodicals, and was the author of several feminist plays. Stokes was married to wealthy socialist James Phelps Stokes from 1905-1925, married communist leader Jerome Isaac Romaine (also known as Victor J. Jerome) in 1927, and died of cancer in Berlin in 1933. Note: the collection has been microfilmed, and researchers must use the microfilm copy (R-7124, reels 67-68).

Guide to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives: Small Photograph Collections ALBA PHOTO 036

This collection contains a number of photograph collections, mostly donated by veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, that were deemed too small to catalogue individually. All of the photographs were separated from corresponding Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) manuscript collections at the Tamiment Library. The images include scenes of the battlefield and daily life in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, Spanish civilians and locales during the War, portraits and group shots of American volunteers in Spain and in the pre- and post-Spanish Civil War years, and images of Dolores Ibarruri, among other subjects.

Guide to the James S. Allen Papers TAM 142

James S. Allen, born Sol Auerbach (1906-1986), was an organizer, Marxist scholar, writer and editor for the Communist Party, USA. He was a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and was in the first American student delegation to the Soviet Union. In 1928, he joined the Communist Party and began writing for the Daily Worker. He was a leading party organizer in the south in the early 1930s, and edited the Labor Defender and Southern Worker. In the late 1930's, he travelled to the Phillippines where he helped to arrange the merger of the socialist and Communist parties. His books include: The Negro Question in the United States (1936), Atomic Energy and Society (1949), and Organizing in the Depression South: A Communist's Memoir (2001). From 1962 to 1972, Allen also headed International Publishers, the CPUSA publishing house. The collection includes his correspondence, Communist Party documents, and scrapbooks.

Guide to the Guide to the Civil Service Technical Guild Records WAG 024

The Civil Service Technical Guild (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 375) was organized in 1937. It represents engineers, architects, chemists, and technical inspectors employed by the City of New York; employees of various City departments are organized into separate chapters, each with its own officers. The Guild has fought against “farming out” of city contracts to private firms, has won expanded benefits for its members, has opposed political patronage in hiring and has supported reform of the City’s Civil Service examination and job classification systems. This comprehensive collection of union records was donated by former Guild presidents, Philip Brueck, Alexander Lurkis, Joseph Collins and Louis Albano, as well as by individual Guild members.

Guide to the Carl Geiser Papers ALBA 004

Carl Frederick Geiser was born in Orrville, Ohio on December 10, 1910. He fought with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and was taken prisoner and held in a fascist prisoner of war camp for a year before being released in April 1939. After a successful career as an aeronautical engineer, in his retirement he began to research and write a history of American volunteers captured during the Spanish Civil War. His labors resulted in the publication of Prisoners of the Good Fightin 1986. In addition to Geiser’s Spanish Civil War correspondence, this collection consists chiefly of research materials gathered by Geiser in the course of writing his book. It includes correspondence with International Brigade veterans, biographical materials and subject files, along with typescript copies of Geiser’s original 900-page manuscript.

Guide to the John Pittman Papers TAM 188

John Pittman (1906-1993) was an African-American communist journalist and writer born in Atlanta. He graduated from Morehouse College, and received an M.A. in Economics (1930) from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1931, he founded and served as editor of the San Francisco Spokesman, renamed The Spokesman. Pittman became an editor of the (daily) People's World. Pittman traveled to Europe as a correspondent for the Communist Party's newspapers: Daily Worker(New York), People's World, and for the Chicago Defender. He married fellow communist Margrit Adler and together were Moscow correspondents for the CPUSA press. Pittman was also the founding co-editor of the Daily Worldin New York. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, writings and documentation of his political activities.

Guide to the Robert Steck Papers ALBA 104

In January 1937, Robert Steck, actor and social activist, sailed to Europe to volunteer for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. He was taken prisoner in April 1938 and held for seventeen months. After serving in World War II, Steck became a history teacher. Throughout his career, Steck also organized many events designed to present the history of the Spanish Civil War. The collection reflects the range of Steck’s progressive activities and concerns, including his long association with the communal adult camp, Camp Unity, correspondence with members of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and biographical profiles and research associated with his collaboration on Carl Geiser’s book Prisoners of the Good Fight.

Guide to the Virginia Gardner Papers TAM 100

Virginia Gardner (1904-1992) was a journalist, Communist, and biographer of Louise Bryant. She worked at several midwestern newspapers before joining the Chicago Tribunein 1930. Around 1937, she joined the Communist Party and was fired from the Tribunefor her union activism in 1940. She then went to work for the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee in New York and was briefly Executive Secretary of the American Council on Soviet Relations in Washington D.C.. She was active in the Citizens Committee for Harry Bridges, and wrote for the Federated Press(a labor news service), The New Masses, Peoples World(the CPUSA West Coast newspaper) in Los Angeles and the Daily Workerin New York where she covered the Rosenberg case in 1953. Gardner wrote The Rosenberg Storyin 1954 and Friend and Lover, a Louise Bryant biography in 1982. Gardner died in 1992. The collection includes her correspondence, documentation of her political activities, research materials, manuscripts, autobiographical materials and articles.

Guide to the Records of the Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.), Part II, Holocaust Era Files WAG 025.2

The Jewish Labor Committee, an umbrella group of Jewish trade unions and fraternal organizations, was founded in 1934 for the purpose of organizing opposition to Fascism, providing assistance to its victims, and fighting all forms of bigotry. After the Second World War the Committee continued its program of relief to Holocaust victims, providing shipments of food, clothing, and medical supplies. It also provided immigration assistance, and offered help with employment and housing for refugees who came to the United States. The JLC's Holocaust-related records, Part II (1948-1956), include minutes, convention proceedings, reports, press releases, correspondence, survivors’ biographical files and a wide range of printed material. Documented in detail are the JLC's efforts to sustain and resettle survivors, contacts with socialist and trade-union leaders in post-war Europe, proposals for liberalizing American immigration policy, lobbying for reparations, and anti-discrimination work.

Guide to the Records of the Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.), Part I, Holocaust Era Files WAG 025.1

The Jewish Labor Committee, an umbrella group of Jewish or Jewish-led trade unions and fraternal organizations, was founded in New York City in 1934. Its primary purposes were to organize anti-Nazi and anti-fascist activity and to provide assistance to European Jews and others persecuted by these movements. During World War II, it maintained close ties with European resistance movements and was able to effect the rescue of hundreds of labor and socialist activists and their families. After the War, it helped to reunite families and resettle survivors. The original donation of JLC records to NYU included more than 800 linear feet of material. This guide describes the first portion of the JLC records; included are general administrative records for the Committee’s earliest years as well as files documenting anti-Nazi activity (including relations with other Jewish organizations), rescue and aid activities, and overseas work in general. Most documentation of the JLC’s domestic anti-discrimination work, which increased in intensity in the post-war years, is included in later series.

Guide to the Marine Workers Historical Collection TAM 125

The Marine Workers Historical Collection was the result of a community history project on the Chelsea area of New York City conducted by Joe Doyle, then a New York University Department of Public History graduate student, beginning in 1981. Doyle set out to reconstruct and document the working-class population and institutions of the Chelsea waterfront of New York City in the first half of the twentieth century. The project was continued and expanded in partnership with the Marine Workers Historical Association. The collection includes rank-and-file newsletters, flyers, union correspondence, grievance reports, pamphlets, memoirs, memorabilia and printed ephemera of many kinds documenting the working and living conditions of American merchant seamen/women since 1900 and the struggle of maritime workers, particularly sympathizers of the Left, to organize and maintain leadership in the National Maritime Union (NMU) and other unions.