ILGWU Education Department, Beverly Shulman Papers, 1972-1991
Collection Number: 5780/106
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
ILGWU Education Department Beverly Shulman Papers, 1972-1991
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/106
Abstract:
Consists of materials on several of the ILGWU's training institutes, seminars, and
conferences.
Creator:
Shulman, Beverly
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). Research Dept.
Quanitities:
2 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor
unions in the United States founded in 1900 by local union delegates representing
about 2,000 members in cities in the northeastern United States. It was one of the
first U.S. Unions to have a membership consisting of mostly females, and it played
a key role in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s. The union is generally referred
to as the "ILGWU" or the "ILG". The ILGWU grew in geographical scope, membership size,
and political influence to become one of the most powerful forces in American organized
labor by mid-century. Representing workers in the women's garment industry, the ILGWU
worked to improve working and living conditions of its members through collective
bargaining agreements, training programs, health care facilities, cooperative housing,
educational opportunities, and other efforts. The ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers Union in 1995 to form the Union of Needle trades, Industrial
and Textile Employees (UNITE). UNITE merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees Union (HERE) in 2004 to create a new union known as UNITE HERE. The two
unions that formed UNITE in 1995 represented only 250,000 workers between them, down
from the ILGWU's peak membership of 450,000 in 1969.
Beverly Shulman was Special Projects Coordinator in the Education Department of the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU).
Local union's of the ILGWU established and maintained robust, ambitious educational
departments early on in the international's history. As these groups grew in size
and scope, the international office sought to coordinate and centralize educational
programming for the union's members, culminating in the formation of the Educational
Department in 1918.
The department's programming included courses at the Workers' University at the Washington
Irving High School in New York City, lectures at Unity Centers and Unity Houses in
the northeastern United States, and other events. The educational offerings of the
International's Education Department were varied, as had been the education departments
of the local unions, and included not only classes in labor studies but also courses
in languages, music, and the arts. The ILGWU's 1937 musical "Pins and Needles" exemplified
the diversity of the union's programs.
Directors of the Education Department, especially Fannia Cohn and Mark Starr, wrote
extensively on the ILGWU's programs and worker education in general. Longtime director
Gus Tyler not only directed the department, but also served as the ILGWU's on-staff
scholar. In later years, the Education Department went beyond collaborating with other
education organizations and arranging in-house programs to also supporting post-secondary
education for union members and their families.
The Education Department records document activities across the entire period of the
department's existence, with the bulk of the records covering the 1970s and 1990s.
It contains papers from directors of the Education Department: Fannia Cohn, Mark Starr,
Gus Tyler, and Kitty Krupat.
The earliest documentation of the department's work is found in the Fannia Cohn papers
(5780/049, 5780/049 P); these contain correspondence, subject files, speeches, photographs,
and printed material from her work as director of the Educational Department. A microfilm
copy of the Fannia Cohn papers held at the New York Public Library (5998 mf) complements
the Kheel Center's holdings. Documentation of the work of another longtime leader
of the Education Department, Mark Starr, is contained in these records (5780/166,
5780/166 PUBS), as well as in a related collection from Starr on worker education
programs (5243).
Documentation of the work of Gus Tyler, who led the merged Education and Political
Department after Mark Starr's retirement in 1960, is also contained in the ILGWU records
(5780/052, 5780/088, 5780/096). Tyler's papers are complemented by those of Assistant
Director Jasper Peyton (5780/086) and Special Projects Coordinator Beverly Shulman
(5780/106). These collections contain routine correspondence and memoranda, reports,
materials relating to training institutes, seminars, and conferences, and printed
material.
The papers of Kitty Krupat, who was serving as Education Director at the time of
the ILGWU/ACTWU merger in 1995, constitute the entirety of Education Department records
from the 1990s. They include correspondence, memoranda, reports, and financial records
relating to the ILGWU's independent and collaborative education projects, including
the Worker-Family Education Program, the Joint Union-University Committee on Labor
Education, and the Consortium for Worker Education, as well as numerous trainings,
conferences, and seminars. Also included in the files are materials from local unions
and regional departments of the ILGWU, files on the Internationals' conventions, and
reports to the General Executive Board.
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
ILGWU Education Department, Beverly Shulman Papers #5780/106. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records 5780/138: ILGWU Education Department, Kitty Krupat Papers 5780/166: ILGWU Education Department Records 5780/166 PUBS: ILGWU Education Department Publications 5780/086: ILGWU Education Department, Jasper Peyton Papers 5780/049: ILGWU Education Department, Fannia Cohn Papers 5780/049 P: ILGWU Education Department, Fannia Cohn Photographs
Names:
Shulman, Beverly.
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Educational Dept.
Subjects:
Women's clothing industry -- United States
Clothing workers--Labor unions--United States.
Clothing workers -- United States
Industrial relations -- United States
CONTAINER LIST
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 1 |
The Global Factory ILGWU Worker-Family Education Program: An ESL Curriculum
|
1991 |
Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Mayoralty Primary. Beame. Expenses
|
1977 |
Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Mayoralty Primary. Beame. Correspondence: Incoming and Outgoing
|
1977 |
Box 1 | Folder 4 |
Mayoralty Primary. Beame. Bronx Headquarters
|
1977 |
Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Mayoralty Primary. Beame. Queens Headquarters
|
1977 |
Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Mayoralty Primary. Beame. Manhattan Headquarters
|
1977 |
Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Mayoralty Primary. Leaflet Distribution
|
1974-1976 |
Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Mayoralty Primary. Endorsement of Mayor Beame
|
1977 |
Scope and Contents
August 15 - September 8, 1977
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Mayoralty Primary. Phone Banks
|
1977 |
Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Citizens Committee for Assumption of Welfare
|
1977 |
Scope and Contents
Nov. 1977
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Mayoralty Primary. Beame. Suggestions for Telephone Banks, Local Reports from Local
Headquarters.
|
1977 |
Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Mayoralty Primary. Beame. Managers Pictures Taken with Mayor Beame
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Hugh Carey Campaign
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Nelson-for-Senate Committee
|
1980 |
Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Arbitration Seminar
|
1980 |
Scope and Contents
Oct. 14-16, 1980
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 16 |
Critical TV Seminar
|
1980 |
Box 1 | Folder 17 |
Hotels - for Conferences
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 18 |
Advanced Staff Training Inst.
|
1979 |
Scope and Contents
March 26 - April 11, 1979
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 19 |
Advanced Staff Training. Re: ILGWU Training
|
1978-1979 |
Box 1 | Folder 20 |
Advanced Staff Training. Price Watch Patrol
|
1979 |
Box 1 | Folder 21 |
Staff Training Institute
|
1978 |
Scope and Contents
November 8-21, New York, 1978.
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 22 |
Staff Training Institute. Correspondence.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 23 |
Supervisor's Conference
|
1978 |
Scope and Contents
June 7-9, 1978.
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 24 |
Organizers' Conference
|
1978 |
Scope and Contents
February 2, 1978.
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 25 |
Report to the Education Committee of the General Executive Board ILGWU
|
1979 |
Scope and Contents
August 20-22, 1979.
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 26 |
ILGWU National Legislative Conference
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 27 |
Organizers' Conference. Non Union Forms.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 28 |
Organizers' Conference. Attendance and Schedule
|
1977-1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 29 |
Organizers' Conference. Correspondence.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 30 |
Organizers' Conference. Diplomas.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 31 |
Organizers' Conference. Materials sent to Ed Schneider.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 32 |
Organizers' Conference. John DiGirolamo, Weekly Reports.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 33 |
Advanced Training Institute, Unity House
|
1981 |
Scope and Contents
August 1981.
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 34 |
Advanced Staff Training Inst.
|
1981 |
Scope and Contents
August 16 - 22, 1981
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 35 |
Organizers' Conference. Kit Material.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 36 |
Organizers' Conference. Expenses
|
1977-1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 37 |
Organizers' Conference. Conference Contracts.
|
1978 |
Box 1 | Folder 38 |
Organizers' Conference. A Study of Voter Attitudes
|
1977 |
Box 2 | Folder 1 |
Organizers' School. Training Institute
|
1976 |
Scope and Contents
Reservations, Invoices, Checks Received & Paid Out.
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 2 |
Productivity Seminar. Bank Statements
|
1977-1981 |
Box 2 | Folder 3 |
National Legislative Conference, Washington D.C.
|
1977-1978 |
Scope and Contents
Jan. 29 - Feb. 1, 1978.
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 4 |
Distribution of Demonstration Materials Country-Wide
|
1972 |
Box 2 | Folder 5 |
Northeast Dept.
|
1972 |
Box 2 | Folder 6 |
New York, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Cloak - Out-of-Town
|
1972 |
Box 2 | Folder 7 |
Eastern Region
|
1972 |
Box 2 | Folder 8 |
Public Relations. All Submitted Files on Proposed Hiring of PR Firms
|
1972 |
Box 2 | Folder 9 |
Public Relations. All Bookings. TV, Radio, Newspapers (private interviews)
|
1972-1973 |
Box 2 | Folder 10 |
Responses to Requests for Literature
|
1973 |
Box 2 | Folder 11 |
New Scripts
|
1979 |
Box 2 | Folder 12 |
ILG Film Strip
|
1978-1979 |
Box 2 | Folder 13 |
"We are the ILGWU" Booklets
|
1979-1981 |
Box 2 | Folder 14 |
Harbor Festival
|
1978-1980 |
Scope and Contents
July
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 15 |
Harbor Festival
|
1978 |
Scope and Contents
July 4, 1978.
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 16 |
"Harbor Festival Salute 1980"
|
1980 |
Box 2 | Folder 17 |
Harbor Festival
|
1981 |
Scope and Contents
Lane Kirkland.
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 18 |
Harbor Festival
|
1981 |
Box 2 | Folder 19 |
Harbor Festival
|
1980 |
Scope and Contents
July 4, 1980.
|