Cook, Alice H. Memorial Celebration Photo Display, 1920-1994
Collection Number: /4238 P
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Alice H. Cook Memorial Celebration Photo Display, 1920-1994
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
/4238 P
Abstract:
"Happy Birthday to an Exemplary Teacher" Photographs, February 1984, are also included
in this collection
Creator:
Cook, Alice H.
Quanitities:
1.17 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
Alice Hanson Cook (1903 - 1998) devoted her life to helping working people, and especially
working women, on four continents. What she herself called her 'patchwork career'
included social work, adult education, labor organizing, a tour of foreign service
at the end of World War II, twenty years teaching in Cornell's School of Industrial
and Labor Relations, and authoring numerous books and articles. She was a pioneer
in bringing attention to issues such as comparable worth, maternity leave, and pay
equity, known for both her scholarly writings and her activism on the experiences
of working women around the world. Alice attended Northwestern University's School
of Speech from 1920-1924, gaining her only formal degree. (She would later receive
a number of honorary doctorates, including one from Northwestern.) While enrolled
at Northwestern, Alice began her studies of both economics and social work, as well
as beginning her lifelong attachment to the ideals of socialism. Early employment
with the YWCA's Industrial Department in the 1920s led her to find ways to use the
Y for both union support efforts and attempts to organize women workers previously
ignored by unions, such as domestic servants. These early efforts with the Y led to
Alice's involvement with adult labor education efforts such as the Bryn Mawr Summer
School for Women Workers, Arkansas' Commonwealth College, the Southern Summer School
for Workers in North Carolina, and the Hudson Shore School. They also led to her first
direct employment by the union movement, as she worked for the early CIO's Textile
Workers' Organizing Committee. The 1930s and 40s also mark the beginning of Alice's
interests in similar developments around the world. From 1929 to 1931, she studied
in Germany under a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) fellowship, beginning
her long association with the German system of adult and labor education. She would
return to Germany after World War II, when she became the chief of adult education
in Germany's American Zone for the Education Division of the High Commission, Germany.
Her travels through Germany at this time combined with her own personal experiences
led her to become intrigued with questions of comparative systems of labor education.
She would ultimately travel throughout both Western and Eastern Europe as well as
Asia in order to carry out her research. Alice's academic career began in 1952, when
she was hired by the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell
University in Ithaca, N.Y. She began as a researcher in the School's extension division,
but moved into a full academic teaching position in 1955. She served as a well-respected
teacher in the School up to her retirement in 1972.
Collection consists of photographs from Alice's 80th and 90th birthday celebrations.
Photographs from her trip to China, England, Wales, Austria, Germany and Hawaii. Includes
photos from conferences, visits to colleges and photographs of her family and friends.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference
archivist for access to these materials.
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and
Procedures for Document Use.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Alice H. Cook Memorial Celebration Photo Display #/4238 P. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
Cook, Alice Hanson--Photographs
CONTAINER LIST
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 |
80th Birthday; 90th Birthday; China, 1978, Binghamton Conference, 1994
|
1978-1994 |
|
Scope and Contents
15 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 2 |
College years; Commonwealth College, 1926; 1920's
|
1920-1926 |
|
Scope and Contents
19 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Cornell, 1980's and 1990's
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
36 photographs`
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 4 |
England and Wales; Austria and Germany; 1928-1931
|
1928-1931 |
|
Scope and Contents
16 photographs and 1 ID card
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Family
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
24 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Friends
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
21 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Hawaii, February 1982; 80th birthday in Hawaii with Gloria Steinem, and the Hawaii
Women's Political Action League
|
1982 |
|
Scope and Contents
22 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Hudson Shore Labor College, 1939-1944; 1941-1946
|
1939-1946 |
|
Scope and Contents
11 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Informal at home
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
32 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Japanese Trade Unions, Working Mothers; 1962-1963
|
1962-1963 |
|
Scope and Contents
19 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Northwestern University Honorary Doctorate, 1987, Dedication of Cook's Grove; University
of Connecticut Honorary Doctorate, 1992
|
1987- 1992 |
|
Scope and Contents
16 photographs
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Youth Conference in Germany, ca. 1950; Egypt; Germany; Paris
|
1950-1959 |
|
Scope and Contents
17 photographs
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 1 |
Alice Cook -- Happy Birthday to an Exemplary Teacher -- February 28, 1984
|
1984 |
|
Scope and Contents
framed collage
|
|||
| Box 3 |
Images digitized from the collection.
|
||