HST 407: Labor History

One way of identifying the articles and books you need is by looking at the citation notes and bibliographies of the sources you already know and have. A good book about the Populist movement, for example, is likely to cite many of the other important works on the Populism that you will want to consider.

Collections relating to Labor History:

Colegio César Chávez Collection

Braceros in Oregon Photograph Collection

 

Selected finding aids from the Oregon Historical Society Library and Archives in Portland:

Labor Collection

Transportation Collection

Southern Pacific Railroad Collection

Union Pacific Railroad Collection

Maurice Edgar Crumpacker Papers 

Before you go, check out OHS hours and guidelines for using the library.

American Labor Studies Center. Links to other sites (some scholarly, some not). http://www.labor-studies.org/

Bisbee Deportation of 1917 Collection at University of Arizona:

http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/bisbee/

The Chinese in California, 1850-1925, Collection at Library of Congress:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/cichome.html

Coal Mining in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Collection at Ohio State University:

http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/gildedage/

Emma Goldman Papers at U.C. Berkeley:

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/

Federal Writers' Project Life Histories at Library of Congress:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html

Federal Writers' Project Life Histories at Library of Virginia:

http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b-clas06&local_base=CLAS06

Haymarket Affair Collection at Library of Congress:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ichihtml/hayhome.html

Haymarket Affair Collection at Chicago Historical Society:

http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/index.html

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, Collection at Harvard University:

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/

Labor Archives & Research Center from San Francisco State University. Many unions have made the Labor Archives the official repository for their historical records. http://www.library.sfsu.edu/about/depts/larc.php

Labor Archives Directory from the Society of American Archivists http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/labor/Labor_Archives_Directory.asp

Labor History Web Links collected and annotated by the UWA History Librarian: http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/tm/labor.html

Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World:

http://www.ibiblio.org/sohp/laf/

New Deal Network:

http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/default.cfm

Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project at University of Washington:

http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/

Triangle Factory Fire Collection at Library of Congress:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html

U.S. Labor & Industrial History WWW Audio Archive from University at Albany, SUNY http://www.albany.edu/history/LaborAudio/

Voices From the Dustbowl: The Charles L. Todd and Margaret Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection at Library of Congress:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html

Women Working, 1800-1930, Collection at Harvard University:

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/

WWW Virtual Library U.S. Labour History links to primary source collections from across the U.S. http://www.iisg.nl/w3vl/unitedstates.html

Two other local repositories of historical documents worth considering:

Benton County Historical Museum in Philomath, a couple online collections, otherwise visit by appointment.

Thompson's Mills State Heritage Site in Shedd, open daily for tours.

America's Historical Newspapers (1690-1876) Digitized historic newspapers. Check geographic coverage under places of publication.

American Periodicals Series: (1740-1900) Digitized American magazines and journals.

American Memory Project More than 9 million digitized items from the Library of Congress.

Avalon Project documents in law, history and diplomacy at Yale Law School Library.

Making of America a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction at the University of Michigan.

Nineteenth Century in Print Twenty-three digitized popular, literary and political periodicals and magazines. View titles and dates. Over 1500 digitized books from the 19th C.

Government documents can be a great source of information, including archival or primary sources.

Use the OSU Libraries' guide to Government Information to identify congressional publications (hearings, serial set, house/senate reports and documents, etc.) from 1789 to the present. Once you have identified them, then find the full text in print, microfiche, or online depending on availability.  gives an overview of government publications and how to get them.

Look for dissertations in Dissertation Abstracts. You can request it from InterLibraryLoan and they will see if the owning university will lend a copy. If not you may be able to purchase one through UMI Dissertation Express.

Sometimes current dissertations are available full-text online through the owning university's library. Check that university's library catalog.