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Collections Overview
Library CollectionsThe Tamiment Library has a non-circulating collection of more than 50,000 books focusing on the history of labor, politics, political thought, literature and the arts. The collection includes more than 15,000 non-current serial titles: labor union convention proceedings, union journals, strike bulletins, underground newspapers, internal bulletins of radical organizations, and scholarly journals in labor and radical history. Holdings are particularly strong in titles indexed by the Alternative Press Index, Left Index, and Work-Related Abstracts. The Library's ephemera holdings (some one-million items) are largely housed in a vertical file containing broadsides, leaflets, manifestoes, and reports generated by a wide spectrum of labor and left-wing organizations. Collection strengths include: the history or labor, trade unionism, radical politics, the struggle for civil liberties, civil rights, and women's history. Pamphlet holdings include the Radical Pamphlet Literature, a collection consisting of some 8,762 pamphlets assembled by the Rand School of Social Science, and Twentieth Century Political Pamphlets, a collection of approximately 4,000 political pamphlets from the collections of Cornell University, New York University's Tamiment Library, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the State University of New York at Albany, which are available on microfilm and microfiche in the Tamiment Library with accompanying guides. The Tamiment Library is now part of a consortium led by the California Digital Library and funded by the Library of Congress’ National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program that is developing the curatorial and technical tools to preserve at-risk political websites. http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/preservation/webatrisk/. Please e-mail Tamiment Librarian, Donna L. Davey, for specific requests relating to Library Materials. Archival Collections
The Tamiment Library contains some of the most important collections in the United States relating to labor and social history [labor collections], the history of the Left, the place of the worker in American society, the evolution of labor law, women's history, immigrant history, and much more. Tamiment preserves the history of working-class New York: its neighborhood associations, fraternal and ethnic societies, political organizations, and the unions that shaped the social and economic structure of the City. The Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives is the designated repository for the records of the New York City Central Labor Council, its member unions and affiliated organizations. Tamiment/Wagner holds more than 400 manuscript collections, a total of more than 15,000 feet of original papers and records. Detailed guides and inventories for many of these collections may be consulted at the Library. A number of finding-aids are available on-line; they may be found at: the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives alphabetical list of online finding aids. Some archival holdings have been microfilmed (indicated by an asterisk [*])and may be borrowed through inter-library loan. Political CollectionsSocialism: The records of the Socialist Party are one of Tamiment's core collections. The Library's Socialist collections have a New York focus but include important record groups that are national in scope. Some of the more significant collections are: early local Socialist Party and predecessor organization records, the Rand School of Social Science, the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, the New York Bureau of Legal Advice (precursor to the ACLU), papers of Eugene V. Debs, congressman Meyer London, Harry Laidler, William Mailly, and James Oneal, Rose Pastor Stokes, cartoonist Art Young, Michael Harrington, and Democratic Socialists of America. Communism: Tamiment's archival collections document the activities of the Communist Party of the United States, its leaders, cadre, rank and file activists, and fellow travelers (including figures from labor and electoral politics, education, the arts and publishing). Some of the more notable collections are: New York City Councilman Peter V. Cacchione, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, artist Hugo Gellert, Labor Research Association, National Council on American Soviet Friendship, autobiographical manuscripts by Party leaders rank and file activists. In 2006 Communist Party of the United States donated its archives and the Library of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies to the Tamiment Library in order to make its history accessible to students, scholars, and activists. CPUSA: Ninety Years of History, a Tamiment Library exhibit curated by Peter M. Filardo and Michael Nash, containing highlights of the recent acquisition may be viewed on Flickr. The Tamiment Library is also the repository for several related and popular front organizations, as well as the records describing many of the government investigations and prosecutions of the Communist Party and its members. Tamiment has acquired microform collections documenting the history of Communism: the Comintern Archives: Materials of Congresses and Plenums of the ECCI, Files of the Communist Party of USA (CPUSA) in the Comintern Archives, and the papers of Earl Browder. Related collections describe the history of Trotskyism and Socialist Workers Party, Anarchism, New Left, Unaffiliated Left Organizations, and the Women's Movement. Finding Archival CollectionsBrowse the Tamiment Library's Collections List online to identify archival collections and link to finding aids and collection descriptions where available. Search finding aids to identify archival archival collections in the Tamiment Library or search Tamiment's finding aids together with the finding aids of Fales Library & Special Collections, New York University Archives, and New-York Historical Society by choosing Search All Finding Aids. Records for processed and cataloged archival collections may be found in BobCat, New York University's on-line public access catalog. Please contact Gail Malmgreen for information about the Archives and Manuscript Collections (Gail.Malmgreen@nyu.edu; 212-998-2636) The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) collection, formerly located at Brandeis University, has been acquired by the Tamiment Library. The collection is the largest and most important resource for the study of the participation of American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. It includes the papers of more than 200 volunteers, oral histories, films, photographs, posters, and selections of the microfilmed records of the International Brigades that were taken to the Soviet Union after the Spanish Civil War. Biographical ManuscriptsThe Tamiment Library holds a number of biographical manuscripts including the nine listed below that were written by radical men and women who were also active in the Communist Party of the United States of America, either as leaders or as rank and file activists. The finding aids describe the archival collections that contain the biographical manuscripts.
The Archives of Irish America
The Archives of Irish America is also part of the Tamiment Library. This important collection documents the Irish Diaspora, its relationship to the American labor movement, working class New York, and America's larger culture and society. For a description of this collection please view the website for the Archives of Irish America.
Non-Print CollectionsPhotographs, film, videotapes, posters and memorabilia provide a rich visual record of the history of labor and radical politics. Much of this visual material doesn't just supplement information in manuscript collections and papers--it can also provide evidence that is not available in written sources. Photographs: Tamiment has more than 500,000 photographs documenting a wide range of subjects including: union organizing, the workplace, the shop floor, the changing nature of work, strikes, rallies, demonstrations, progressive political campaigns, socialists, communists, anarchists, and members of other leftist organizations. They also depict working class resorts, summer camps, New York City street scenes and architecture. Photographs from the collection are often used in films, television programs, books, exhibits, and websites. They have also been displayed at both union gatherings and academic conferences. Graphic Materials: The Library has a poster and broadside collection of more than 2,000 items, a number of original paintings and drawings, several thousand original pen and ink political cartoons, and more than 6,000 political buttons, as well as t-shirts, picket signs, banners, bumper stickers and other artifacts. Moving Images: About 100 video documentaries and feature films dealing with labor history and radical politics have been acquired through funding by the Jacob Blaufarb Endowment and the New York State Council on the Arts, as well as by direct donation. Videotapes cannot be borrowed but may be viewed at the Avery Fisher Center (Bobst Library, 2nd floor). A catalogue of these titles may be consulted at the Library. Among these works are two videos produced by Tamiment Library itself, drawing from two of its most important collections: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: The Rebel Girl and They Were Not Silent: The Jewish Labor Movement and the Holocaust. The Library also holds more than 80 hours of archival film footage (including out-takes and unedited footage) from its general Tamiment/Wagner collections, which may be consulted for research purposes, but is not at present available for licensing. In addition the Library holds 400 hours of film in its Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and Communications Workers of America collections, a small portion of which is available for research, but not for licensing. Finding Non-print CollectionsBrowse the Tamiment Library's Collections List online to identify non-print collections and link to finding aids and collection descriptions where available. Search finding aids to identify non-print collections in the Tamiment Library or search Tamiment's finding aids together with the finding aids of Fales Library & Special Collections, New York University Archives, and New-York Historical Society by choosing Search All Finding Aids Records for processed and cataloged non-print collections may be found in BobCat, New York University's on-line public access catalog. Please contact Erika Gottfried (erika.gottfried@nyu.edu; 212-998-2635) for information about the non-print collections. Oral History CollectionsCarefully researched interviews with labor leaders, rank-and-file workers, and political activists are an important part of the Tamiment collections. Paul Buhle's Oral History of the American Left and Debra Bernhard's New Yorkers at Work are the core oral history collections. The collections also include audiotapes of speeches, concerts, conferences, memorial meetings, union meetings and other public and private events, as well as commercial recordings. Transcripts or summaries are available for many oral history interviews. Donor restrictions govern the use of some interviews. Unions wishing to develop their own oral history projects can contact Tamiment for assistance. Please contact Mike Nash (212-998-2428; michael.nash@nyu.edu) for more information about the oral history collections. Vertical FilesThe Library's ephemera holdings (some one-million items) are largely housed in a vertical file containing broadsides, leaflets, manifestoes, and reports generated by a wide spectrum of labor and left-wing organizations. Collection strengths include the history or labor, trade unionism, radical politics, the struggle for civil liberties, civil rights, and women's history. Approximately 30% of this collection has been cataloged in BobCat. An unpublished guide available at the library lists the vertical file headings for the uncataloged portion of the collection. Updated 05/06/08 |
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