Utah State Federation of Labor

The Utah labor archives has a complicated provenance. These records were originally part of the office files kept by various trade unions in the Federation of Labor Hall on West Temple and 2nd south Streets, and later in the Labor Temple at 151 south 2nd East in Salt Lake City, Utah. When this building was razed in October 1964, the majority of the records were deposited with the Institute of Industrial Relations on the University of Utah campus. The remainder of the records fell into private hands, and were purchased by Brigham Young University from Sam Weller's Zion Book Store.

In 1970 the Director of the Institute of Industrial Relations, Dr. Reed C. Richardson, deposited the records in the Western Americana Department of the University of Utah Libraries. In December of that year a formal Deed of Gift was signed by Dr. Richardson, transferring the papers to the Library.

After a preliminary processing of the records by the Manuscripts Librarian, a ceremony was held at the University of Utah in January 1971. Various union officials, university officials, and interested parties attended. At this ceremony, the president of the Utah state AFL-CIO designated the University of Utah as the official labor archives of the State of Utah. Later that same year, the AFL-CIO voted in their annual convention to confirm this designation.

In the latter part of January 1971 the local representative of the United Steel Workers, George W. Haycock, deposited the papers of the Mine, Mill, and Smelterworkers, District 2, as well as assorted materials on the Steelworkers. In March 1971 Alvin W. Joseph, secretary of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Utah, gave the Library selected papers from that organization, its forerunner the Building Trades Congress, and the Sheet Metal Workers. These papers were appended to the original records, and the entries for them were included as an addendum to the main register. Additional donations of materials were made by George W. Haycock in 1975.

Papers and records continued to be donated to the Utah Labor Archives throughout the 1970s, with additional donations from Joseph Kenneth Davies in 1976, and Frank Stevenson's United Mine Workers 1922 scrapbook, donated in 1978. In that same year the records that had been purchased by Brigham Young University were obtained through a trade and added to the Utah Labor Archives Finally, materials from the Western Americana division of Special Collections were transferred to the Archives in 1984. There have been other additions to the records in the last decade, but detailed records were not kept, and it is impossible to list them all.

It should be noted that portions were used for research by scholars prior to its deposit in the Manuscripts Division. Notations were made on some of the documents, usually in red ballpoint pen. These notations should not be considered as markings made on the documents while in the hands of union officials nor by members of the staff of the University of Utah.

When the original register was prepared late in 1970, the collection was housed in only fifty-eight boxes. Materials added the next year, as well as subsequent addenda over the last two decades, have almost tripled that figure. When the register was revised in 1991-1992, no attempt was made to reorganize the original portion of the collection nor the addenda; rather, the boxes were re-numbered so that the entire collection is now numbered consecutively. The register was revised to reflect that change, and an index to the entire collection was compiled and appended to the register.

From the guide to the Utah labor archives, 1878-1979, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)