United Automobile Workers of America, District 65 Photographs- Part I: Negatives and Interpositives Bulk, 1940-1959 1938-1969

ArchivalResource

United Automobile Workers of America, District 65 Photographs- Part I: Negatives and Interpositives, Bulk, 1940-1959, 1938-1969

United Automobile Workers of America, District 65 Photographs- Part I: Negatives and Interpositives Bulk, 1940-1959 1938-1969

http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/photos_023/photos_023.html

District Council 65, United Automobile Workers (UAW) was organized in 1933 by a group of Jewish workers employed in dry goods warehouses on New York's Lower East Side. In 1935 it became a local of the Wholesale Dry Goods Employees Union; subsequently, it affiliated with the Distributive Trades Council of New York and the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU); it affiliated with the UAW in 1979. The union went out of existence in 1994, when bankruptcy forced it to close. Between 1937 and 1942, District 65 was at the center of a group of New York City left-wing locals organizing large numbers of warehouse and retail workers; it later expanded its organizing to include white-collar workers in publishing and universities. Politically active in areas beyond its own immediate concerns, District 65 was an early participant in the civil rights movement, as well as one of the first labor unions to publicly oppose the Vietnam War. It also took a progressive stance within its own organization, with rank and file members playing an active role in their union. The collection consists of nearly 30,000 black and white negatives spanning the late 1930s through the early 1960s, with the bulk from the 1940s and 1950s, shot by members of District 65's own Camera Club, which functioned as staff photographers for the union's newspaper. The images document the everyday organizational life of District 65, its leaders and its diverse membership (including men and women of Jewish, African-American, Irish and Hispanic descent), while at the same time providing especially strong documentation generally for left and liberal causes of the 1940s-1960s, including civil rights, rank and file participation in union activities, working class leisure and recreational activities. Also included are images of prominent left-wing and liberal politicians, entertainers, and celebrities.

32.0 linear feet; (32 boxes)

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives