ILGWU. Education Department records, 1920-1979
Collection Number: 5780/166
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
ILGWU. Education Department records, 1920-1979
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/166
Abstract:
Contains correspondence, memoranda, and reports documenting the work of the Education
Department between 1920 and 1979, including material relating to several of the ILGWU
Education Department's Social and Education Centers in New York City such as attendance
sheets and correspondence of Fannia Cohn.
Creator:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Quanitities:
0.5 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
Founded in 1900 by local union delegates representing about 2,000 members in cities
in the northeastern United States, the ILGWU grew in geographical scope, membership
size, 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. In 1995, the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) to form the Union of Needletrades, Industrial
and Textile Employees (UNITE).
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 records #5780/166. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation
and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records 5780/106: ILGWU. Education Department. Beverly Shulman papers 5780/138: ILGWU. Education Department. Kitty Krupat papers 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:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Education 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 |
Bensonhurst Social and Educational Center; New Utrecht High School.
|
1935-1936 |
Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Bronx Social and Educational Center.
|
1935-1936 |
Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Brownsville Social and Educational Center; Brownsville Labor Lyceum.
|
1935-1936 |
Box 1 | Folder 4 |
C.I.O. Report to Detroit Board of Education
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Fannia Cohn.
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Correspondence material and letters to Fannia Cohn.
|
1930-1934 |
Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Draft: Women's Garment Industry
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 8 |
East Harlem Social and Educational Center; Heckscher Foundation.
|
1935-1936 |
Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Education Department.
|
1926-1927 |
Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Education Department. Miscellaneous
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 11 |
ILGWU Current Classes. Reports.
|
1951-1954 |
Box 1 | Folder 12 |
ILGWU Educational Department. Organizing Files.
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Labor in America. Press Release.
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Mark Starr vs. Board of Education
|
1943 |
Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Memorandums
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 16 |
Semi-Annual Report. Instructions.
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 17 |
Students and Instructors of the Workers University of the I.L.G.W.U. Reunion.
|
1927 |
Scope and Contents
February 1927.
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 18 |
Unity House.
|
1925-1928 |
Box 1 | Folder 19 |
West Side Harlem Social and Educational Center.
|
1935-1937 |
Box 1 | Folder 20 |
Williamsburg Social and Educational Center.
|
1935-1936 |