Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm75034363
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The records of the National Women’s Trade Union League of America were given to the Library of Congress in 1950.
The records of National Women’s Trade Union League of America were arranged and described by Mary M. Wolfskill in 1976. The finding aid was revised in 2009.
Photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and Photograph Division where they are identified as part of the National Women’s Trade Union League of America Records.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of National Women’s Trade Union League of America is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The records of the National Women’s Trade Union League of America are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
A microfilm edition of these papers is available on twenty-five reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan. To promote preservation of the originals, researchers are required to consult the microfilm edition.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, National Women’s Trade Union League of America Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The records of the National Women’s Trade Union League of America (NWTUL) span the lifetime of the organization from its first meeting in Boston in 1903 to the last bulletin of its official organ,
The NWTUL’s administrative operations are well documented in the Headquarters series. Its policies and activities are recorded in the minutes of the executive board meetings and in the correspondence. Most of the letters and memoranda are from national league secretaries, particularly Elisabeth Christman, who held the position from 1920 to 1950. There is also correspondence from members of both the national and local leagues, especially from the New York, Boston, and Chicago branches. Many of the local league members also served as officers or executive board members of the national league and are represented in the headquarters records. Included in this group are Margaret Dreier Robins, Mary Morton Kimball Kehew, Jane Addams, Rose Schneiderman, Mary Kenney O’ Sullivan, Melinda Scott, Agnes Nestor, and Mary E. Dreier. Interspersed with the materials documenting the activities of the league are financial statements enumerating sources of income and costs of operation.
The Subject File as well as the Headquarters records concern the league’s goal of organizing women wage workers into trade unions. There is considerable material on the early history of the league in the historical data file. Many of the files on individual members contain biographical information, and the file on the American Federation of Labor sheds light on the league’s relationship to that organization. In this file and in the headquarters records is correspondence with Samuel Gompers, Frank Morrison, Frank Duffy, and Florence Calvert Thorne.
Both the Headquarters records and Subject File document the league’s efforts to improve women’s working conditions through supporting strikes, particularly in the garment industry, through the use of a training school to develop leadership among women of the working class, and through lobbying for the enactment of protective labor legislation. Issues such as the eight-hour day, a minimum wage, and the establishment of sanitary work areas were the focus of the league’s early days. However, its interests broadened in later years to include federal aid to education, civil rights, price control, and social security. Correspondents include Ethel Marion Smith, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, Mary Anderson, Alice Henry, and Frances Perkins.
The records of the NWTUL also contain proceedings for ten of the thirteen national conventions and mimeographed corrected copies of the proceedings of the three international congresses that the league sponsored.
This collection is arranged in five series:
Available on microfilm. Shelf no. 16,737
Correspondence, minutes of national and executive board meetings, reports, clippings, printed matter, speeches, and other material.
Arranged chronologically. A subject index in Container 1 lists only selected items, for the most part, in two-year intervals.
Correspondence, reports, memoranda, clippings, printed matter, notes, and other items.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and therein chronologically.
Verbatim reports of proceedings of national conventions.
Arranged chronologically
Principally corrected mimeographed and printed copies of reports of proceedings.
Arranged chronologically.
Oversize certificate and seal.
Arranged and described according to the series, container, and folder from which the items were removed. Filmed in original location before removal.