Alice Cook Collections
Collection Number: /4329
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Title:
Alice Cook Collections, 1920-2004
Collection Number:
/4329
Creator:
Cook, Alice;
New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations;
Kheel Center for Labor- Management Documentation and Archives
New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations;
Kheel Center for Labor- Management Documentation and Archives
Quantity:
134.6 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Papers (documents), biography (genre), audiovisual
materials .
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor- Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Correspondence, manuscripts, publications, photograph
prints, memorabilia, audio recordings, and daily calendars.
Language:
Collection material in English, French, German, Japanese
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.
Includes Alice Cook's biographical reminiscences, correspondence, manuscripts,
publications, photograph prints, memorabilia, daily calendars. Also includes audio
recordings from the Alice Cook 100th Birthday Conference
Names:
Cook, Alice
New York State School of Industrial and Labor
Relations --Faculty.
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation
and Archives
Form and Genre Terms:
Papers (documents)
Biography (genre)
Audiovisual materials
Access Restrictions:
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a
reference archivist for access to these materials.
Restrictions on Use:
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet
and Procedures for Document Use.
Cite As:
Alice Cook Collections #4329. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library.
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | 1956-1998 | |
|
122.5 linear feet. Correspondence, manuscripts, publications, photograph
prints, memorabilia, and daily calendars.
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 2 | 1983-2003 | |
|
5.7 linear feet. Audio recordings of Alice Cook's biographical
reminiscences.
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| Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1998 | |
|
0.6 linear feet. This collection consists of 116 photographs from the April
19, 1998, memorial service for Alice H. Cook.
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| Box 1 | Folder 4 | 1920- 1994 | |
|
1.2 linear feet. "Happy Birthday to an Exemplary Teacher" Photographs,
February 1984, are also included in this collection.
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 5 | ||
|
0.5 linear feet.
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| Box 1 | Folder 6 | 2002- 2004 | |
|
2.4 linear feet
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| Box 1 | Folder 7 | 2003 | |
|
1.7 linear feet. Audio recordings from the Alice Cook 100th Birthday
Conference
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| Box 1 | Folder 8 | 1990- 1996 | |
|
1 file folder
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