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HIST 156J: Capitalism, Labor & Class Politics in Modern U.S.: Materials Used in Class Session

Introduction

The following entries highlight the archival collection materials used in the class session held in the Beinecke Library on Wednesday, February 21, 2024.


While you're exploring the collection box in front of you and preparing to tell your fellow students something about the materials it contains, it may be useful to consider some of the following questions:

  1. Who created the materials you're looking at? When and where were they created?
  2. What is going on in the folders you looked at? What is the context for the document(s)? For what audience(s) and purpose(s) were they created?
  3. Whose perspective(s) comes through in the document(s) you examined? Whose doesn’t?
  4. How do the materials relate to the readings and discussions you've been having in this course so far?
  5. What questions do the materials raise?
  6. Did anything surprise you when looking at the folders in your collection?

Gus Hall Papers (MS 2113) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Gus Hall (1910-2000) was an activist, politician, and prominent member of the Communist Party of the United States, and was one of the people arrested in the 1949-1958 Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders. The Gus Hall Papers contain the professional papers of Hall throughout his time as secretary-general and president of the Communist Party of the United States of America as well as his personal correspondence to his family during his time in jail.

Collection materials used in class session:

  • Series I, Box 1, folder 26: Gus Hall, "The ultra-right, Kennedy, and role of the progressives," speech printed in pamphlet format, undated but approximately 1960. 

Employee Unions and Strikes, Yale University, Records (RU 105) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, writings, printed materials, clippings, and other papers of the American Immigration Conference Board, an anti-communist organization devoted primarily to severely limiting immigration. The papers also contain materials relating to various immigration legislation during the 1930s.

Collection materials used in class session:

Lucy Kramer Cohen Papers (WA MSS S-2635) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Papers document the life and career of Lucy Kramer Cohen, particularly her work for several federal agencies, contributions to The Handbook of Federal Indian Law, and her political and advocacy work. Professional papers primarily consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, research notes, printed materials, and other papers relating to Kramer Cohen’s work for the Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, National War Labor Board, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Department of Labor, National Science Foundation, and Public Health Service. Other professional papers include speeches and notes from Kramer Cohen’s time as a staffer and speechwriter for Helen Gahagan Douglas and memoranda and reports on Korea, Germany, and Iran from her time as an editor of the Human Relations Area Files. Other professional papers relate to Kramer Cohen’s work as a high school math teacher, research jobs, job searches, and the federal government’s loyalty investigation concerning Kramer Cohen in the 1950s.

Collection materials used in class session:

Rachel Carson Papers (YCAL MSS 46) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photos, and printed material relating to the research and publications of Rachel Carson, noted biologist and environmentalist who fascinated readers with three books on the wonders of the sea and awakened the American public to the dangers of pesticide misuse with a highly controversial bestseller, Silent Spring

Collection materials used in class session:

Thomas Irwin Emerson Papers (MS 1622) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, writings, course material, legal documents, and printed material that document Thomas Emerson's career as a lawyer and law professor. The papers emphasize Emerson's teaching, writing, and organizational activities during his career at the Yale Law School from 1946 to 1976. The subject files consist largely of collected material and detail Emerson's involvement in organizations. His activities on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women are among those most thoroughly documented. The subject files also contain a limited amount of material from the period Emerson spent working for the federal government from 1933 to 1946. 

Collection materials used in class session:

Dwight Macdonald Papers (MS 730) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, printed material, photographs, audiotapes, and memorabilia documenting the personal life and professional career of Dwight Macdonald (Yale College Class of 1928). Macdonald's literary career, political activities, teaching and speaking engagements, and personal life are detailed. Major subjects represented in the papers include: communism and the Trotskyite movement, journalism and publishing, American social and political life (1920s-1970s), pacifism, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Correspondence files include letters with many prominent intellectual and political figures.

Collection materials used in class session:

John V. Lindsay Papers (MS 592) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The papers document the life and political career of John V. Lindsay from his student days at Yale University through his two terms as mayor of New York City, 1965-1973. Part I contains pre-congressional and congressional papers covering the years 1944-1965 and includes his Yale senior thesis, personal correspondence and subject files, campaign records, and congressional papers for the years 1959-1965.Part II contains Lindsay's personal mayoral papers covering the years 1965-1973. The papers include personal correspondence, schedules, appointment books, subject files, campaign records, the papers of ten assistants to the mayor, photographs and other materials. Accessions to the collection provide additional material relating to Lindsay's congressional and mayoral years, his work on a study of the Metropolitan Transit System of New York City, as well as his 1972 Democratic presidential nomination bid and his 1980 Senate primary campaign.

Collection materials used in class session:

Harry Shulman Papers (MS 239) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Professional correspondence, writings, and files documenting Shulman's work as an arbitrator in labor-management disputes (1942-1955). Shulman served as a law clerk to Justice Louis Brandeis and as a faculty member of Yale Law School beginning in 1930. He was appointed dean in 1954 and served until his death from cancer in 1955.

Collection materials used in class session: ​​​​​​

Women and Work Collection (MS 1313) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Typed transcripts of interviews with women for the project: "The Twentieth Century Trade Union Woman: Vehicle for Social Change," conducted by the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (University of Michigan-Wayne State University) Program on Women and Work.

Collection materials used in class session:

  • Box 3, folder 18: Oral history interview with Maida Springer Kemp, ILGWU, by Elizabeth Balanoff, 1978.

Jacques E. Levy Research Collection on Cesar Chavez (WA MSS S-2406) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Audiotapes, transcripts, notebooks, correspondence, documents, printed material, and writings accumulated by Levy while conducting research for his book, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. The collection documents the life of Cesar Chavez as well as the early history of the United Farm Workers union.

Collection materials used in class session:

Mary Johnson Papers (MS 2050) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Organization files, subject files, correspondence, personal papers, and protest signs and posters documenting the work of New Haven activist Mary Johnson. Materials address peace activism, healthcare reform, living wage initiatives, support for senior citizens, government elections, constitutional rights, environmental activism, and political parties. Organizations documented include the New Haven Federation of Teachers, Local 933, Greater New Haven Coalition for People, United Farm Workers (UFW), Progressive Action Roundtable, People Against Injustice (PAI), and Livable Income for Everyone (LIFE)

Collection materials used in class session:

Ogden Rogers Reid Papers (MS 755) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, student papers, writings, speeches, subject files, congressional papers, clippings, photographs and miscellanea documenting the personal life and professional career of Reid, including his service in the U.S. House of Representatives (1963-1975).

Collection materials used in class session:

Harry Weinberger Papers (MS 553) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, legal papers, notes, and other materials documenting Weinberger's career as a lawyer who specialized in civil liberties cases and, later in his career, copyright law. The one hundred and sixteen (116) case files include legal briefs, writs, and memoranda prepared by Weinberger and his staff, and similar material prepared by opposing attorneys. Correspondence files include letters with clients and individuals interested in a specific case. Weinberger's clients included: Alexander Berkman, Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, Emma Goldman, and Eugene O'Neill. The papers also include a small number of Weinberg's short stories and plays and correspondence with his nephew, Warren Weinberger.

Collection materials used in class session:

Robert Lane and Dana Ward Interview Transcripts on Political Ideology (MS 2121) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The collection consists of transcripts of interviews conducted by Robert E. Lane in the 1950s for his book, Political Ideology: Why the American Common Man Believes What He Does, and transcripts of follow-up interviews conducted by Dana Ward in the 1970s for his dissertation Ideology and Generations: An Intergenerational Restudy of Robert Lane's Political Ideology. Lane interviewed fifteen New Haven working class men about their political and social views and Ward, then a student of Lane's at Yale University, interviewed children of those men twenty years later. Interview questions generally pertain to the subject's views on the United States economy, foreign policy, political leaders, race relations, and their own personal work and family life. The transcripts are anonymized and filed by interviewee number.

Collection materials used in class session:

A.I.M.: The Bulletin of the American Independent Movement - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Yale Library catalog record for this title

Published by the Independent Political Action Committee, New Haven, CT.

Collection materials used in class session:

  • Volume 1, Numbers 1-17 (1966-1967).

Some issues of this periodical are available through a library-licensed database.

El Malcriado - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Yale Library catalog record for this title

"The official voice of the United Farm Workers."

Collection materials used in class session:

  • Scattered issues, 1970-1976.

Some issues of this periodical are available through a library-licensed database.